For Sale By Owner How 2 - WHERE TO FIND MORE ABOUT MAKING REPAIRS

Do not be intimidated by the toilet. It has 2 bolts holding it to the floor, and one cold water line entering the tank. Your biggest worry is to make sure you replace the wax ring at the bottom of the toilet that fits to the hole in the floor and use teflon tape when you are reconnecting the water line. Yes putting in the float and flapper in the tank can be intimidating but you just have to make sure to keep things from overlapping and set the water level all explained in the directions. If you follow the directions you will be good to go.
CLEAN DRAINS
How to CLEAN DRAINS check out 3D tutorial
Great way to clean out the bathroom sink drain and the tub drain because it is usually a hair clog is to keep a crochet needle yep that's right one of those long metal things with a hook on the end that people use to crochet. Using that you can easily stick it down into the drain and pull out that nasty hair making your drain so slow. It's cheap and no dangerous chemicals. works every time.
Also, it is a good idea to invest in an auger or plumber's snake (it's called this because it is like a snake in that it is long and windy. It comes on a reel and you feed it down into the drain and when it hits the clog you manipulate it around to break up the clog. The auger is easier to use because it is in its own housing and you feed it through the drain pipe and once it hits the clog you wind the handle on the holder and it spins around inside the pipe breaking up the clog.
GARBAGE DISPOSAL WON'T RUN

Here's a trick a plumber friend showed me take a wooden broom handle and place it wooden top of handle down into the disposal and wedge it against the blades and then twist. Many times the reason the disposal won't run is that something is lodged against the side of the drum.By doing this with the broom handle you can sometimes dislodge it and the disposal will work again. Of course don't forget to hit the reset button on the bottom before you try anything. It could just be that.
REPLACING A GARBAGE DISPOSER
How to INSTALL A GARBAGE DISPOSER check out 3D tutorial
You will find instructions for replacing the garbage disposal at the above link but for us girls I found the perfect way to hold it up while I was bolting it to the drain. I used a jack stand. That's right one of those automotive jack stands you put under a car while you work on it, the stationary kind. They're not too expensive and they can come in handy for lots of things. Now I am not talking about a jack in your car but a jack stand. You can adjust it to the height you need and then effortlessly screw in the bolts. There just isn't enough room under the sink to have someone else trying to hold it up for you and it is pretty heavy.

ELECTRIC

How to REPLACE A RECEPTICLE check out 3D tutorial

How to INSTALL A CEILING FAN check out 3D tutorial

How to INSTALL A DIMMER SWITCH check out 3D tutorial

FLOORING

Squeaking floor
If you have a squeaky floor it is usually caused by a subfloor section that has come loose from the floor joists. If it is under carpet you can take an exacto knife and cut a slit in the carpet (a very small slit) and using a power screw driver or your drill with a Phillips head driver screw in a wood screw about 2" where you have made the slit. This should remedy the squeak.

Replacing Vinyl flooring
It is best to pull up the old vinyl using a scrapper. I usually take my iron and a towel and using medium heat I will place the towel over the section I want to remove and with the iron on top of the towel I will heat up the area. When it is warm it is much easier to scrape up. Once all the vinyl is up you can prep the subfloor for the type of flooring you plan to put down.

Hint: If you are putting down those self stick vinyl squares keep them in the fridge as you work. that way you will greatly reduce the space between the tiles after they come to room temperature. The theory is that they will expand in hot and shrink in cold. If you put them down cold they will be the smallest the will ever be so your floor will end up with nice tight seams when you are finished and the floor warms up. But think about it the floor is always cooler than the surrounding air so if you put the tiles down at room temp (warm) they will be expanded and if the floor becomes cool they will shrink and then you will have these gapping seams.
If you are laying sheet goods be sure to have a heavy roller to roll out all the air bubbles. Surface preparation is very important here because every imperfection will show through the vinyl. Do not over apply the glue, you don't want to get big clumps under the flooring. Honesly I do not consider laying sheet vinyl a do it yourself project. There are too many things that can go wrong. I would hire someone who knows what they are doing. Now this isn't as dangerous in a small bathroom where there aren't alot of cuts to deal with and it is pretty straight forward being mostly a rectangle. The only thing I would suggest here is that you remove the toilet.

Ceramic Tile
Are you considering laying a ceramic tile floor. It is not as hard as you might imagine. They have these spacers to make sure your grout lines are even and once you get the hang of mixing and applying the adhesive it goes pretty quickly. And there are some great tricks to the grouting process.

First check out the TILE CALCULATOR tile calculator

How to INSTALL CERAMIC TILE check out 3D tutorial

I will be addding more how 2's for making repairs as I find them. Hope these help you!

Oct 1, 2009 forsalebyownerhow2 abjf Blake Enterprises

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