The tools that allow you to fix some of the most common household problems yourself
If something goes wrong in your house, your first thought might be to call someone in to fix it. The only problem is tradespeople can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars and leave a big hole in your bank account. Instead of calling someone out, you could repair many jobs yourself if you had the right tools to fix them. Here are some of the tools any savvy homeowner should have.
A pair of adjustable wrenches
One of the most common problems in any home is a leaky pipe. Not only does it cause a mess, but it also wastes money, can reduce your water pressure and also damage everything around it in the process. If you have a dripping pipe above your head, it could bring down a large part of the ceiling as well as damage the floor underneath. Before you call out any emergency plumber, try and see if you can spot where the leak is coming from yourself. If it’s at a compression join, try and tighten the nuts with a pair of adjustable wrenches to see if that stops the drip. If that doesn’t work, use the same tools to remove the part and replace it with a new one. Make sure you turn off the stop valve first though to stop any water flowing from the two pieces of pipe whilst you work on it.
A welding iron
If you’ve got something made out of metal, like an ironing board, a garden swing or even your front gate, if the metal snaps you might think the only thing you can do is to throw the furniture away. If it’s a piece of furniture as big as a gazebo or pergola, you could be throwing away hundreds if not thousands of dollars just because of one failed join. Instead, why not consider welding the join back together yourself. Brand like Leister sell a wide range of beginner’s tools to make the process easy for even the most novice of constructors. They sell a whole range of hot air tools to help, including those that can weld plastic together and hot air guns that can strip old paint of walls too. Along with welding iron you should also have a beginner and low budget welding helmet to protect your eyes. Helmet adviser has reviewed a variety of welding helmets on their website to help you choose better.
A good filler and sander
If something has created a big hole in your plasterwork, you might think the only cause of action is to call in a plasterer to go over the whole wall or ceiling again. Not only will this be costly, but it can also be very messy as plaster can get everywhere, even when you’re trying to focus on just one wall. Instead, there are now a lot of fillers on the market that will fill even the deepest and widest of gaps. Apply several thin layers to the hole to build up the thickness until it’s just over the height of the original wall. Then, use a sander to sand the filled in hole so it’s flush with the original wall. If you have a large crack across a wall, cover it with scrim tape before plastering to reduce the chances of the crack appearing again.
