When your old garden hose springs a leak, you can fix it or buy a new one. If you buy a new hose, you can spend between $10.00 for a cheap hose to upwards of $100.00 for a large diameter rubber hose. Take it from a handyman, It is cheaper to fix the damaged hose with a repair kit. The repair kit will correspond to the size of your hose, but some universal repair kits can fix hoses from 5/8" to ¾". The kits also work for any hose material.
You will need to cut out the damaged area with a nice square cut. Use a sharp utility knife for this and the hose will cut cleanly and easily. The cut ends of the hose will push onto a coupling that has barbs on each end. You might put some liquid soap on each end of the coupling to act as a lubricant and allow the hose to easily push onto the fitting.
Once you have the hose pushed onto the fitting, there are clamps that will secure the hose to each side of the coupling. Sandwich the hose in between the two halves of the clamp and tighten the screws down. Do this for each side of the coupling and you are ready to start washing the car.
Pneumatic door closers are the weak little sister of hydraulic door closers. Pneumatic door closers are good for closing lightweight screen doors, as they use air in the closing mechanism versus the oil used in the more powerful hydraulic closers.
As a handyman, we are asked which type to use, and the answer is that it depends. It mainly depends on the weight and size of the door. Lightweight doors, such as screen doors or hollow doors, can generally be pulled shut by a pneumatic closer, whereas heavier doors, such as steel exterior doors, need a hydraulic closer.
The closing is done by an internal spring inside the closer. As you open the door, the spring tension begins to close the door. The rate of closing is controlled by a piston and chamber that fills with air when the door is opened. There is an adjustment screw on the end of the closer that controls how quickly or slowly the air empties from the chamber, and consequently how quickly or slowly the door closes. That's why you hear a hissing noise as the air escapes from the chamber...it's more of a controlled slamming of the door.
These pneumatic closers are a game of adjustments. You can adjust how quickly the door closes by adjusting the screw that allows air to escape. However, the door may still give you problems. If the door doesn't close the last few inches, you will need to play with the bracket on the door where the closing arm mounts to it. Many of these brackets have several sets of holes to allow for this. If you move the arm to a hole farther away from the closer, you should get enough force to close and latch the door. If your bracket doesn't have a series of holes for these types of adjustments, you will need to move the bracket slightly farther out away from the closer.
If you've ever wanted to replace a security door or gate, you know that the major roadblock are the one-way screws. They are not meant to be removed and therefore don't have the complete slot in the screw head. The slot in the screw head is cut in such a way as to only allow tightening of the screw, not loosening of it. So if you want to remove this type of screw or bolt, how would a handyman do it?
There are special tools you can buy specifically for this purpose or you can manipulate the screw head to reverse it. The tool you can buy chucks in your drill and you slowly back the screw out.
If you don't want to buy the tool, you can use any one of these methods...try holding 2 hacksaw blades together and cut a new slot in the screw head. This will allow you to get a standard screwdriver in the slot and allow you to unscrew it (a grinder would also work well here). You can also use the grinder to clean up the existing slot so that you cut a shoulder in the head to unscrew it. Or, use the grinder to cut a new slot perpendicular to the existing slot.
Finally, you can use the grinder or a file and cut the sides off of the screw head so that the 2 sides are parallel. This will allow you to use a wrench and unscrew it like the head of a bolt.
My garage is like many other homeowner's garages. It's messy. Many garage tinkerers leave their tools and projects laying around. As a handyman though, I take my tools with me. But that brings up a good point of what an average homeowner can do to organize his tools. Short of an expensive multi-leveled toolbox, you can always hang your tools on the wall.
This is done with pegboard and can be made on the cheap depending on if you want it to be a few square feet, or if you want it to cover the entire wall. You can make it as large as you want.
The thing to remember is that you will need a small space behind the pegboard so that when you insert the pegs and hangars they have somewhere to go, rather than hitting the wall. To accomplish this you can build a frame around the perimeter of the pegboard using 1"x 2" furring strips. Basically build a frame and secure the pegboard to this frame so that the frame acts as a spacer for the pegboard. If you are planning on a using a large sheet of pegboard, you will need to use the furring strips about every 18" to stabilize the pegboard and make it more rigid, plus they will give you more points to secure it to the wall.
When you've got the pegboard and frame ready, screw it into the wall studs through the pegboard and furring strips and start hanging your tools.
As a trustworthy handyman service, we are asked to work unsupervised in many vacant houses. This is convenient for everyone, as the customer doesn't have to waste their time babysitting us, and we can work in a more relaxed environment.
Recently, a new buyer had us do some work in a home she just purchased that had been bank owned. She was working full time and gave us a key to the property. We were done in few days and (since she carried a duplicate key) placed the key inside the house and left the house completely locked up. She couldn't understand how we were able to leave the house locked without using the key. It's actually very easy...if there is a garage door opener.
When you are ready to exit the house, simply lock all of the doors/windows from the inside as you would if you were going to bed. Press the garage door opener button to raise the door. Now here's where it gets fun...press the garage door opener button again to start closing the door and race out of the garage. The only thing is that you will have to step over the invisible sensor beam that reverses the door. It looks very strange: press the wall button, sprint to the door, and step over the invisible beam so as not to cause the door to reverse...all while you are bending down because the door is closing.
I told the customer how this is done and it was like a revelation. She had tried this before and the door always opened back up.
If you've ever grouted a floor or wall, you know that grouting is not a difficult job. However, the perimeter of the area can be troublesome if you are not careful.For example, on a ceramic tile floor that meets the baseboard, you can really create a mess if you try to push too much grout into the gap between the edge of the tile and the baseboard, and the grout gets on the baseboard and looks sloppy.
Some people will try to cut the tile right up to the baseboard, but you still are forced to deal with a small gap. The way around that, of course, is to remove all the baseboard, install the tile, and then reinstall the baseboard over the tile. This creates additional work and also raises the baseboard which may cause problems if the room is adjoining and the other room's baseboard isn't being raised up as well.
My handyman tip is to use painter's tape. You can use a roll of the painters tape and lay it flat on the ceramic tile after the mortar has cured. By laying the roll flat, you are aligning it flush with the surface of the tile, so that the finished product will be seamless.
So before you start grouting, lay out a strip of the tape (1" or 1 ½" wide works well) around the perimeter of the room. I start a strip on the baseboard and then, laying the roll on the floor, pull the roll out and stick the section to the baseboard. I do about a foot or so at a time until all of the baseboard has tape on it. You don't need to completely cover the baseboard, just at the bottom where the grout could touch it.
Once you grout the gap between the tile and baseboard, you can pull the tape slowly off the baseboard. This will essentially cut the grout perfectly level with the surface of the tile. The trick is to pull it fairly soon after you've grouted the area. If you wait too long and the grout has dried, the tape will rip and not be able to pull through the grout. A few minutes is all you will need after you have grouted the perimeter. When you pull the tape, the grout will crumble off of the tape and you will have a perfect finish right up to the baseboard.
As a handyman I get asked a lot of questions. This time I had a customer who was asking about doorstops. She had very nice base molding that is stained and finished, and I didn't blame her for not wanting to screw a doorstop through it, even though you can get some pretty fancy doorstops. Failing to install doorstops will likely lead to a drywall repair when someone swings the door open a little too aggressively, and the door knob pokes a hole through the drywall. So what is the answer?
You can install a hinge pin door stop. These mount in the hinges of the door and have little padded arms that push against the door itself and the door's frame (or trim). You can adjust these by turning a set screw to open or close the distance of where the resistance begins.
These types of doorstops are best for hollow core interior doors as they are lightweight, however they are so lightweight that this type of doorstop can punch a hole in them if too much force is used. For heavier doors you may need to install a door stop on each hinge pin and adjust them so that they give uniform resistance.
Installing them is easy. Just tap out the hinge pin and insert it through the doorstop. Then tap the hinge pin back into the hinge and adjust it.
Have you ever pulled on the shower handle to start the flow of water and the valve partially moves with the handle? This is typically because the pipes were not strapped to the wall framing, which allows for some play in the valve and piping. You wouldn't really notice this in a valve where you just turn the handle side-to-side, such as a Moen Positemp or Delta Monitor. However, with a valve and handle that you have to pull out to start the water, particularly when the handle or cartridge is sticky, you really notice the problem.
You can have a handyman strap the pipes to the lumber in the wall, which will solve this problem, but it creates a lot of additional work. You have to gain access to those pipes, which means cutting the wall open and then repairing the wall. With the wall open, you simple secure a couple of pipe straps with screws near where the pipes enter the shower valve. Then you have the drywall repair.
You can try to avoid this by doing a couple of things. Try shooting expandable foam into the wall cavity and let it set up and get hard. This may give the shower valve enough resistance that it won't move when you pull the handle out. Additionally, replace the shower cartridge. This should make it so that minimal effort is required to pull the shower handle out. These two items may help you avoid the job of strapping the pipes.
I have some customers who went to Europe for several weeks only to come home and find their house flooded. The culprit: a $10.00 rubber washing machine hose. They spent an additional 3 weeks out of their home while the construction crew went to work.
As a handyman, we see many different types of customers. Some want the cheapest parts available and others want better quality. This is one of those times you want to use quality parts.
You can buy water supply lines that have a built-in shut off in the event they sense a large water loss. They are sold under the brand name "Floodsafe" and are installed like any water supply line...they simply screw on to the water valve and the fixture.
Floodsafe lines have a mechanism just behind the inlet that senses the water flow for the fixture it is made for. For example, on a faucet that flows 2.2 gallons per minute, the Floodsafe shuts off at 2.8 gallons per minute. The difference is for water pressure fluctuations. These supply lines are made for faucets, toilets, washing machines, dishwashers, and ice makers.
A Floodsafe line will also shut off the water if someone removes the flow restrictor in a fixture and the water volume falls outside of the factory preset amount. In this case the Floodsafe needs to be reset to allow water to flow again. This is done by shutting off the water valve and removing the Floodsafe line. Once you remove the line you can screw it right back on and the water will flow again.
Self-rimming or drop-in sinks are not difficult to install for an
experienced handyman or homeowner. As their name implies, the sink bowl drops into a hole in the countertop and the rim of the sink rests along the perimeter of the bowl. So for the most part, they are not likely to move much unless impacted.
The only thing you need to do is to secure the perimeter of the sink in place. There are a couple of methods here that are both straightforward.
Most drop-in sinks will come with clips that screw into the rim of the sink from underneath the counter. These clips act like a clamp and the more you screw the clip in, the more pressure is exerted on the underside of the countertop. These work very well, unless the countertop is very thick. If you are installing the sink on top of a ceramic tile countertop, it may be too thick to use the mounting clips. This is because you have a wood substrate, followed by cement board, mortar, tile, etc. This counter may be so thick as to prohibit you from using the clips. In that event, you can use adhesive caulking.
Adhesive caulking is applied around the perimeter of the opening so that when you set the sink into the hole, the rim comes to rest in the adhesive caulking. When you set the sink, run a wet finger around the perimeter of the sink for a smooth finish, and then let everything dry.