Pro Handyman Blog

A customer was washing his car when a plumbing crisis occurred. He evidently was pulling on the hose to get a little more distance out of it when he pulled a little too hard and the hose faucet snapped off of the pipe. All that was left was a pipe sticking out of the wall running full blast onto the walkway. At least he had the wits to turn off the water at the street.

He started to panic when he saw the pipe sticking out. It was no longer round, but rather started to turn oblong before it snapped. He tried to squeeze the pipe back into round with pliers but that didn’t work.

Ultimately, the pipe had to be cut back until it could be worked with, meaning cutting it back until it was round again. If the pipe coming out of the wall is long enough, you may not have to cut into the wall, however, if the pipe snaps close to the wall you may have to open it and sweat a fitting onto it. You may be able to sweat a hose faucet (sweat fitting) onto it, or install a new hose faucet with a compression fitting.

I got a call from a friend last week asking if it was okay to turn off his water heater while he went out of town. I asked why he wanted to do that and he said he wanted to save the money, and he could save the energy. That makes sense, but I told him to consider just turning the water heater to the “Vacation” setting on the thermostat. He didn’t know what that was.

Turning the water heater off for the days you are away from the house is fine. The water in the tank will gradually cool and so when you get back you will have to relight the pilot (if you have a gas water heater). This is normally not a problem, but if it’s late and you are cranky, you may not want to take the time to read the instructions printed on the side of your tank.

Turning the water heater to “vacation” setting will keep the pilot lit while lowering the temperature in the tank. So when you get back home from vacation, you will turn the thermostat from vacation to whatever heat setting you desire. Generally speaking, 120 degrees at the tap is recommended. You can test the temperature at the tap by running the water until it is hot, filling a tall glass with the hot water, and using a cooking thermometer placed in the glass.

Here's an easy carpentry job. When you install a new laminate counter top, the end will typically be unfinished. Depending on how you want the end to look you can either buy a piece of wood and finish it to match the profile of the countertop, or you can buy a piece of pre-cut laminate and stick it on the end.

The pre-cut laminate is pretty easy to install. They are sold along side the countertops and are cut to fit the profile of the countertop, including the backsplash. You can either install them prior to installing the countertop, or wait until after the counter has been installed.

The trick is to use an iron to activate the adhesive on the back of the end piece. Use an old iron and set it on a medium to medium-hot setting. Clamp the laminate piece to the end of the countertop and heat up a section of the end piece. You might find that the end piece gets a little slippery once the adhesive has been activated, so be ready to quickly move the piece back into place if this happens. Once that section has dried, move the clamps and finish the ironing. When you are done, you may need to file off some areas to get the piece to exactly match up with the countertop.

Plumbing putty is a necessity when installing drain fixtures. Plumbing putty is a clay-like compound that is sandwiched between the sink and the drain flange. It is most commonly used when installing a drain assembly in a sink or when installing a collar for a new garbage disposal.

Plumbing putty comes in a plastic container. Scoop out some with your fingers and roll it into a long pencil-like snake. It should be just larger than the diameter of a pencil. Lay the snake of plumbers putty along the underside of the lip of the drain assembly. Pay special attention to where the ends come together. It is okay if the ends overlap, but make sure you do not have any gaps. If there is a gap in the plumbers putty you will have a leak. Push it around the perimeter so that it stays and set the assembly in the sink drain hole.

As you place the drain assembly in the hole, push slightly and hold it from moving. From under the sink, you will install a friction washer, a rubber washer, and finally the nut that holds it all in place. As you tighten the nut, you should see the plumbers putty squeeze out from under the lip of the drain assembly. This is a good thing. The squeeze-out should be uniform. If you have any area under the drain assembly that doesn’t have any putty squeezing out, I would remove it and re-install the putty completely around the drain assembly as you likely have a gap which will lead to a leak.

If you have just moved into a new house and plan on installing light fixtures and ceiling fans, take it from a handyman, you will need to strip the wires to install them. If you are replacing existing fixtures, you likely will not, unless they are damaged.

On a pre-wired location the wires normally aren’t already stripped for installation. This is an easy part of installing a new fixture and is something you will likely do many times over the course of your life.

You can use a wire stripping tool or a combination tool for this. These tools have various sized holes that correspond to the size of wire you are stripping. If you open the tool the holes along each side of the tool split in half and you can insert the wire in the appropriate sized hole and squeeze. The tool will cut through the insulation but not the copper wire. Then move the tool towards the end of the wire and it will pull the insulation off.

Many people use lineman’s pliers or anything sharp, such as a knife or utility blade. These will certainly cut the insulation but you risk cutting or nicking the wire as well. This is risky as a nicked wire could lead to overheating of the wire.

Imagine the shock when you find your water bill is double what it should be. Do you have a plumbing problem? Maybe. Several factors go into this. Did you drain and fill your pool last month? Are the correct meter readings on your invoice?

You can see that there are several possible explanations, but you need to get an answer as you may have a leak somewhere. Here are the steps I would take.

With no water running in the house (no toilets running, the icemaker is not filling the trays, the sprinklers are off, etc.) pull the cover off of your meter and look to see if the micrometer is moving (the micrometer is the tiny triangular shaped thing that moves if even the slightest amount of water passes the meter). If the micrometer is not moving, you likely had either a bad reading, or you filled the pool. It suggests that you did use the water you were charged for.

If the micrometer is moving, then water is passing through the meter and you are being charged for it. This is a concern. Look at the landscape first and see if there are muddy areas or areas of tall grass. This would suggest a landscape leak. Turn the anti-siphon valve off and go check the meter once again. If the meter has stopped moving, then your leak is somewhere past your anti-siphon valve in the landscape. If your meter is still moving after this, then it is time to worry. You may have a slab leak. Can you hear water running but find no evidence of it? Does the floor feel warm in a particular area? You can turn off the water supply valve at the water heater and recheck the meter again. If the meter has stopped, you likely have a slab leak past the water heater under the slab.

Cultured marble makes for a sweet looking vanity sink top. It looks great and really dresses up a bathroom vanity, plus it isn’t as expensive as a solid surface counter top. You can remove your old countertop and sink and install the new cultured marble top pretty easily.

After you disconnect the piping and water lines to the old sink, you can remove it and the top in one piece. If you are removing a laminate sink, you may or may not have brackets holding it to the vanity. Look underneath the vanity for any type of fasteners and remove them if necessary. If you don’t see any, gently tap the underside of the countertop to separate it from the vanity.

The new cultured marble top may have an integrated sink bowl or you may need to install one into the countertop. Securing the countertop to the vanity is usually done with adhesive and caulking.

You will have to decide whether you want to scribe the back and side of the top to the wall, or use caulking to hide the gaps. If you scribe the countertop, mark you scribe lines and use a large grit sandpaper on a belt sander to remove the material.

Once you have the top ready, use adhesive along the edge of the vanity and along the edges of the countertop. This will secure it to both the vanity and the surrounding walls. Let everything set up for 24 hours before you connect the plumbing back to avoid disturbing the adhesive.

I see a lot of very shoddy electrical home repairs. Some of it is downright dangerous. A lot of homeowners will take a stab at installing various electrical fixtures, but sometimes lack the understanding of what can go wrong and the consequences. It is scary to see black electrical tape as the only thing holding a connection together.

Wire nuts are the way to go. There are several types of wire nuts, both hard and soft bodied. Use the hard bodied wire nuts as they grip and hold better. Wire nuts have a threaded feature inside of the body that twist the wire ends together as you tighten the nut. This is a nice feature in that you simply hold the wires to be connected together side-by-side, place the nut over them and twist. You can use the black electrical tape over the nut after it has been installed if you wish. Make sure the wire’s insulation in covered by the nut so that the bare wire cannot be shorted out if it makes contact with, for example, the side of the metal junction box.

In a typical homeowner job, you will likely see a yellow or red wire nut. The color determines the size and number of wires that can be joined. This differs by manufacturer, but the large home centers carry wire nuts by Ideal. When you buy wire nuts, there will be charts on the packaging so you can purchase the correct ones for your project.

Want to save 4%-9% of water heater energy costs? Insulate your water heater. According to the US Dept. Of Energy you can do just that by adding insulation to your water heater. How can you tell if your water heater needs to be insulated? Just touch it. If it feels warm, it could benefit by wrapping it in a water heater jacket. You wouldn’t send your child into the cold without at jacket right? You shouldn’t do that with your water heater either.

Installing a water heater blanket is easy. The kits come with complete instructions, but basically you wrap the tank with the blanket and tape it into place. Electric water heaters are easier, as you don’t have the vent or gas connections to avoid.

Although most blankets come with come cutouts already provided, you will have to make some cuts to allow for controls and piping. If you need to get around a pipe, such as the TPR fitting, cut a slit in the insulation and fit it around the fitting. Tape the cut insulation back together.

At the top of the tank will be the cold inlet supply pipe and the hot water outgoing pipe that supplies the house. Some water heaters will have a heat trap built in to the nipple, but you won’t be able to tell unless you take it out. You can bend the flex lines so that there is an arch at the top of the pipe to prevent hot water from backing out of the tank. Also, you can install pipe insulation on the copper flex lines to keep them from losing heat as well.