18 Dec 2021

Do NOT Try This at Home

Home improvement is something to get excited about, deciding which rooms to change and picturing what your outcome will be. Then, of course, you get to go shopping and choose all of the nice new things to put into your home. 

Home repairs, however, are never fun. This is for a couple of reasons, the first, quite obviously, is that by definition, a home repair means something has broken, and secondly, often it means you have to make a quick decision and cannot shop around for the best deal or the nicest item for your home. 

EWM Dumpster Rental of Essex County delivers rental dumpsters ASAP to jobsites across the Belleville, New Jersey area.

We have brought you a list today of 5 of the worst home repairs we can think of and what you can do to avoid them becoming more of a problem than they need to be. 

Clean Your Drains

Drain cleaning is one the worst jobs we can think of inside the home. There is not a person on this planet who enjoys seeing what goes down their drain. Worse than seeing what comes back out of your drains is having the drains become blocked and having to deal with that instead. 

The best way to avoid needing to arrange to clear your drains in a lengthy job or avoiding the need for a professional to clean them for you, we recommend regularly cleaning your drains. There are several ways you can do this, and you should pick the best one for you, but regular cleaning is imperative. 

Keeping to a regular schedule might help you and will stop a build-up in the pipes, which changes drain cleaning from part of your cleaning routine into a home repair.

Roof Repairs

Roof repairs are an awkward home repair. Your roof is not something you can always easily see, depending on the layout. This is another repair that can become costly and cause additional damage, so spotting this early will make your life much easier. 

Checking the areas of your roof that you can see for lifting or missing tiles is an excellent early detection system, but it may not allow you to see your entire roof. You can also purchase safety equipment that will allow you to anchor yourself to a fixed point on your roof to allow you to more thoroughly check your entire roof. 

Lighting Changes

Changing light bulbs is a job for tall people in most houses. Otherwise, you are balancing precariously on a chair or something equally dangerous to get to those light fixtures. This is even worse if you live in a house with high ceilings, as you may then need to get step ladders involved. 

We recommend that you ensure you are prepared for light bulb changes with spares in the cupboard, and as soon as you notice any dulling or flickers in the lights, you change the bulb immediately. This will allow you to choose to change the bulb during the daylight hours when it will be easier to see what you are doing. 

For those of us who cannot reach our light fixtures to change the bulbs, you can also purchase a light bulb changing tool which extends your reach by attaching the bulb to a handle that can be turned to screw the bulb into the light fitting. 

Broken Tiles

There is nothing worse than dropping something heavy onto a tiled floor and hearing that tell-tale crack. Tiles breaking is never a good thing, but it does not have to be a huge issue for you. Preparation is another key issue for this type of home repair. 

When planning to tile the floor of a room, always buy more tiles than you need. Half of a box or a full box should be enough. This means you will have extra if any are broken in the fitting of the floor and will give you some to spare in case of breakages at a future date. 

If you should break a tile once the tiles have been laid and the grout has been set, it is best to act quickly. This will help to avoid injuries on broken pieces of tile but also help to avoid the situation worsening. One broken tile can be removed and replaced, but if left over time, it can cause other tiles around it to become loose or damaged. 

After removing the damaged tile, you should remove as much of the old grout as possible to make the surface underneath as flat as it can be. Once the area has been prepared, one of the spare tiles can be laid, and there is no need for a costly or big repair to the floor. 

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Picture yourself sitting, it is evening, the wind is howling outside your window, you settle down for a relaxing evening, then you hear that horrifying pop, and the lights go out. Do not panic, a fuse has tripped the circuit breaker, you just need to turn it back on. 

Now, if you have a fear of the dark or love scaring yourself with a true-crime podcast, you are probably terrified right about now. So, take a deep breath and go over to your circuit breaker. Use your cell phone as a torch, so you do not bump into anything, and all will be fine. 

We have said it before, but preparation will really save you time and reduce your heart rate in this scenario. If you know where your circuit breaker is, you will not have to stumble around in the dark to find it. Once there, it is as easy as locating which circuit is now off and flipping it back to ‘on.’ 

Top Tip: Cliches exist for a reason; failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and that goes for all home repairs in our experience.