5 simple home repairs you can and should do – Entertainment & Life – Austin 360

Owners typically get a bit cocky within the house enchancment initiatives they assume they’ll deal with. They assume they’ll spend a weekend redoing all their flooring, and three months later they’re nonetheless engaged on the mission. Or they assume they’ll deal with a serious plumbing job, akin to reworking a rest room, solely to neglect to show off the water earlier than beginning.

We requested Brad Casebier, proprietor of Radiant Plumbing, to offer us his tackle what owners can do to enhance their houses. If it isn’t on this record, it’s best to most likely name an expert.

Listed below are the 5 issues you are able to do (and really ought to do):

1. Change your air conditioner filter. “We see loads of ‘by no means have modified an air filter ever,’” Casebier says. “It destroys your air conditioner.”

There are several types of filters and the way typically it’s best to change them is dependent upon which kind you may have. Some must be modified each month; some want modified each three months. Normally, the thicker the filter, the longer it might keep in. Whichever sort you employ, there might be an arrow on the aspect that tells you that the filter’s arrow ought to match the path of the air circulate.

A superb tip: Write the date on the aspect of the filter so you understand how lengthy the filter has been in there.

2. Change out the elements in your rest room. Leaky bathrooms waste about 200 gallons of water a day, Casebier says. There are two elements that sometimes fail on a rest room. The primary is the flapper, that rubber piece that appears like a drain stopper. The opposite is the fill valve and the elements that encompass it, which frequently seem like a rod and a series. Each of those units of elements are available kits with easy-to-understand instructions, typically with diagrams, and solely want easy hand instruments.

Take an image of the bathroom elements you’re changing earlier than you begin so you possibly can see how these elements are supposed to slot in your rest room. You can also search on-line for educational movies.

Earlier than you begin, know easy methods to shut the water off to your rest room. Normally there’s a valve behind the bathroom on the wall, and ensure it really works earlier than you begin any rest room restore.

It’s additionally a good suggestion to know easy methods to flip off the water to your own home from the road, simply in case one thing actually goes mistaken. The road shut off worth requires a particular device. Know the place your device is and take a look at that your road shutoff valve works. Generally calcium builds up and the valve received’t flip. If it feels caught, don’t drive it. Name a plumber to interchange the valve or unstick it. It’s a good suggestion to check your road shutoff valve often to keep away from it getting caught whenever you want it.

The factor with all plumbing is “there’s very a lot a really feel with tightening,” Casebier says. “It must be tight, however there’s a level the place it’s overtightening.” After which issues break and you’ve got water all over the place, which makes you glad that you understand how to close off the water to the bathroom, the sink or your entire home.

3. Flush your water heater. Sizzling water heater tanks get stuffed with calcium. To keep away from this, annually, shut off the electrical energy or fuel to the tank. Flip off the chilly water to the tank. Drain the water utilizing a backyard home hooked up to the water heater, whilst you let the recent water run in a close-by sink. Open and shut the chilly water to the tank to flush it. Let the tank fill 1 / 4 of the way in which, then drain it once more. Preserve repeating till you see no extra sediment being flushed. Refill the tank.

Then flip the electrical energy again on or activate the fuel once more, ensuring the pilot mild is lighted. Run the recent water in your taps to ensure every thing is working once more.

Casebier warns that when you have not accomplished this within the final three years, it’s too late. There’s a lot sediment inside, you can threat clogging it worse than earlier than by making an attempt to flush it.

4. Flush your air conditioner drain line. Inside your own home by the within workings of your heating and air con system is the drain line. This will get clogged with algae, and condensation from the air conditioner doesn’t have wherever to go. Normally, there’s a float swap to show off the air conditioner when the pan to the drain line is full, however typically these fail, too. Fairly quickly, there’s a flood in your own home.

Keep away from this mess simply by pouring a few cups of plain white vinegar down the drain line twice a 12 months to maintain the road clear.

5. Change out your taps and bathe heads. Changing your sink taps or a bathe head is completely doable and may give your rest room or kitchen a recent look. And when you have taps which might be leaking, you’ll need to maintain this.

Be sure to know easy methods to flip off your water to the sink or the bathe earlier than you begin.

Casebier says a lot of the home-repairs-gone-wrong calls he will get are “they didn’t confirm that that they had shut the water off when an emergency occurred,” or they thought their shutoff valve works solely to appreciate it doesn’t.