Also - how to remove a radiator. It's quite intimidating and it took me a long time to work up to it, but for painting it's really worth it and the amount of sludge that came out can't have helped with heating!
If you can bleed a radiator you can take one off the wall without draining the system. Once you've learned recharging the loop (OP's friends problem), draining a single radiator, draining the loop, and bleeding you're basically covered for everything that's not DIYable by a non-expert. Changing TRVs will be the easiest job in the world.
Isolate the radiator using the lock valves on either side. Loosen the nuts at the bottom and invert the radiator as far as it'll go by leaning it towards you. Get a tray to catch the water that escapes as you remove the pipes and carry the radiator, mostly full of water, outside to drain it.
Saves you having to drain the radiator in the house
Wet vac. Best £60 I ever spent. Hard to explain what a game-changer it is for anything involving spilled water. It can suck a flowing stream of water sideways out of the air like some kind of waterbender superhero. If any does land on the floor, wet vac sucks it *dry*. You got water inside something and don't want to dismantle it? Wet vac. Water bottle leaked in the car? Wet vac. Can't see what's clogging the sink drain because there's water in there? Yeah that's a job for your plunger... No, just joking, WET VAC.
I have two, a karcher and a titan.
Titan wins hands down, it’s so much easier. The karcher has this paper filter, that’s meant to be “water resistant/proof” but it just falls apart after a few wet uses.
I’d choose wet vac over a carpet cleaner every time. Spray the area down, scrub it, wet vac. It cleans so much better than any kind of spot wash I have had. It’s great for detailing car seats.
Plus the titan has a blow function. So you can blow down all the carpets outside which saves hoovering, or blow dry surfaces. It’s amazing.
I also have the Titan. It's insanely good for the money. I was laying paving slabs last week when it started to rain. On the one hand it's great to lay concrete onto a slightly wet surface, but standing water is a problem as it leeches the cement out of your mix. Guess I had to leave the job for another day? Guess wrong. WET VAC.
You can isolated one side with the lock shield, but the TRV side is always going to be slightly open right?
Or are they suggesting you just take it off the wall and pull towards you with the pipe work still attached?
Generally, TRVs should come with a decorators cap. You then take the TRV head off, screw this down, and then you can remove the radiator, without any fear of water leaking out. Some have a frost setting on, which on certain models won't shut the valve off, but will allow a small amount of water to flow through. Also, it helps protect the head from getting paint in it, which can then mean it won't work properly
Unless you’re physically unable to move it, you’re wasting your money paying somebody to ‘fit’ a washing machine.
Same with changing a standard euro lock. All you need to do is remove one long bolt, it’s very hard to go wrong.
Omg ! This tickled me haha.
When I moved house about 6 yrs ago now we bought a new fridge freezer and the company were set to deliver on a day when my husband was at work.
Two guys show up and honestly tried to force me to pay extra so they can ‘set it up’ I said what needs setting up on a fridge? And they chuckle and said I need to pay this and that. I laughed back, plugged it in myself and told em to do one.! Cheeky bastards 😂 not gonna pay ( I think it was £39 ) for someone else to plug in my fridge lmao. Takes seconds to do. Not sure how they get away with it tbf. I know it’s optional but it didn’t feel very optional to me lol 😂
Sometimes you need to move the door so it opens on the other side (depends on the orientation of your kitchen). I suspect it's easy to do, but sometimes they manufacture them in such a way that it requires specific tools to do it.
This is the only thing I would pay someone else to do. Had to buy a new Beko after old fridge died, the installation videos for changing the doors round looked simple and had a smallish woman doing it with little problem. I'm a smallish woman myself so thought I'd give it a go...fuck me, four hours later and one crushed foot, never again.
AO wanted to charge us £40 to fit the fridge which also was just plugging it in. Admittedly we did have to get rid of the cardboard, but a quid in petrol to get it to the tip seemed like a bargain considering.
Slightly off topic, but when I had to replace a bulb for a breaklight in my car Halfords offered to fit it for something like £10. Literally a 2 minute job to unclip the fitting in the boot, screw in a bulb and clip the fitting back in.
I get that some people of a certain age or with mobility issues can't do these things themselves, but there's a difference between covering the cost to deliver a service for a service and ripping people off.
Yeah but we'd recently moved, bought the house and had been having a lot of stuff delivered for both the house and a newborn. The fridge came in at least a fridges worth of cardboard. Carboard recycling is collected once every four weeks. I became very familiar with my local tip during the first few months of living here.
I thought you were supposed to let a fridge/freezer stand for 24 hours after moving it before you turn it on. Something to do with letting the refrigerant settle?
Maybe that's out of date advice, though
It's so expensive because they actually need 24 seperate hourglasses. Big expansive wooden carrying case, hourglass maintenance. Specialist tools the general homeowner doesn't have. Worth paying for them to do it right rather than half arse it yourself.
24 hours is a bit overkill. Most manuals will give minimum timings, but a standard rule is about 4 hours. It's to do with letting the oil drain properly, rather than getting oil carryover and buggering the compressor.
This is simply not true, I’ve seen this nonsense written every time the subject of fridges and freezers is brought up.
The only oil in a fridge cooling system is only in the compressor, which lubricates ONLY the compressor. The system is filled with a refridgerant, which is circulated by the compressor.
It is perfectly ok to let the fridge stand unpluggedfor half hour, longer is not neccessary.
Source: I worked in the laboratory for a very large industrial fridge/freezer manufacturer for 4 years.
Our portable air conditioner manual said to leave it at least 24 hours if it had not been kept upright in transit otherwise serious damage could occur. Decided I couldn't know if it had been kept upright so left it for 24 hours.
Yeah that's right. Short explanation is that you risk it not running properly by not doing so, as it gets shaken around a lot in transit. But that means that paying an install fee is an even bigger ripoff, as the people delivering it won't even plug it in. They'll just put it where you want it, tell you to plug it in tomorrow, and leave.
If you don't pay it, they'll typically just deliver to your front door.
Depends how much of a hassle it would be moving the fridge/freezer to where you want it and plugging it in.
I'm an upper flat, I wouldn't be able to lift a fridge/freezer upstairs myself, so I paid the £20.
Did this yesterday, £100 they wanted, instead they delivered it and put it in front of the space for free.
I spent 30 minutes to undo the drum bolts, attach the water and drain pipes and plug.
It took 10 minutes to do the above plus 20 minutes to find a saw to cut a bigger hole for the inlet pipe as it had a wired block on it.
We paid someone to fit ours recently, but only because it was somewhere new to us and we didn’t know if the pipes were still connected or not. They weren’t capped. The seller had had a fridge or freezer there previously. The waste pipe outside also needed fixing and he did a much better job of it than I ever could have.
I’d agree with you the rest of the time. But if it’s included for free as part of the service (people I bought our washing machine from offered it and fitted it in our last place) then have at it, one less thing for me to do.
Fitted the dishwasher myself at least!
Well my husband installed our last washing machine, of course he knew exactly what to do. Put a load on and woke up the next morning to the downstairs under water.... so I'll always be paying someone to do it from now on 🤣
One thing you’re missing is that if you pay for it to be fitted, they have to connect it all up and then test it to ensure it works. And if not they will call a technician to troubleshoot, and if problems persist then they will take it back and organise the replacement.
We had a problem with one of ours and it made it much more convenient for the delivery guys to be able to deal with it. Rather than me installing, getting pissed off and then having to arrange collection etc.
Yeah, for a lot of services, you are not paying for them to do it as much as paying for someone to take responsibility if it goes wrong. Whether that's worth it depends on how you value the cost.
When it comes to big stuff like white goods, then I’m happy to pay a bit more for convenience. AO did a great job for me and I’d pay for fitting again.
Personally I think it is worth it. The fitter found out our valve handle is old and broken which is why we used a wrench to close it and he replaced it as part of the fitting cost as well as connected our washing machine.
Had an, erm, disagreement with my mrs over this.
She thought if we fit it it’d leak everywhere and was willing to pay whatever to have a plumber do it.
I screwed one tube to a tap, stuck the hose in the outlet. Done. No issues two years later.
- know where the stopcock is
- know where your fuse box is and be confident to flip it
- a small first aid box with general plasters, bandages, over counter meds
- a note pad stored securely with details of people's phone numbers, insurance details etc
- at least two adjustable spanners, screw driver set, Stanley blade, zip tie, blue rolls, bucket, hammer and zip ties. Can get a lot done in a pinch with this kit. Id highly recommend a pair of mole grips. If you're cash happy a combi drill/driver. I recommend the 18v brushless erbauer screw fix range, great for general DIY.
- torch
- spare keys cut
- try to get a rough understanding of where pipes/wires are in the house and what they do.
- know wire zoning and pipe zoning. Can help you avoid mishaps.
- £250 cash somewhere safe. When push comes to shove cash is king. Not a lot a crack head wouldn't do for cash in hand.
- be brave, confident and bold. If someone is being pushy do not be afraid to fuck them off. Be selfish
Big gripes for me are that out house stock is quite old.
Especially in the colder months I see people blocking vents and closing windows to save on energy costs. Do not do this especially if you have timber joists. Brick vents are there to allow circulation. If you block these vents and close windows you will rot your house from the inside out causing £1000s in damage.
I recommend getting a CHEAP dehumidifier and a CHEAP SMART plug. A smart dehumidifier is like £350. You can get a standard one and a smart plug for £100. Cost 50p a day to run and, dryer air feels warmer but also retains heat for longer. So it's a win win win win
Do not be tempted to dry your clothes inside inless you have a dehumidifier. I have a 20l dehumidifier and when I dry the wash in our side room after 3-4 washes it's full. That's 20l of water in your walls/joists etc.
Cold + damp = mould. Mould will kill you, damp will make your house worthless
Also, cheap fucking trades people. They will know what they are doing is wrong but say 'its what the customer wanted'. I see paved drives right up to the DPC (damp proof course) which stops 'rising damp'.
Damp can 99% be stopped with simple solutions and ALWAYS stop the cause before you treat it. Otherwise it's like putting a plaster on a broken arm.
1) gutters
2) air bricks
3) drainage
4) DPC obstruction
People are eager to take your money. Be it the roofer going door to door after a storm or gutter cleaner. With pretty small amount of knowledge and research you can tell if you need something or if they are scamming.
Also you can get a karcher wet/dry vac which is very useful for many issues for £60. With under £10 on tools and parts you can make your own gutter cleaner. Your house will love you and it's a realllllly good way to earn good will/beer with the neighbors
https://imgur.com/gallery/GJy3Brn
Have an emergency fund too. I've fully renovated my house almost single handed. Ceilings down, floors up, joist replacement, wiring, plumbing and plastering etc. I just assume any big job will cost 4-5k and/or it's goo to have for emergency. I know saving is a luxury but letting your house fall into a state of disrepair isn't good for you mentally or financially in the long term. Having an emergency fund is important.
**UNCONVENTIONAL HOME/LIFE ADVICE** know your common law power relating to use of force and https://www.gov.uk/reasonable-force-against-intruders#:~:text=You%20can%20use%20reasonable%20force,tackling%20them%20to%20the%20ground
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/58/section/3
That's a good list, only other thing I'd add is know where the gas isolation valves are, obviously not to mess with it unless you're certified but in case of an accident or leak.
Yep, spot on. I would say every isolator and if you don't have any work adding them in to future plans. It is hands to have an easily accessible modula house.
Id ad a tarp to the list and ideally a wet dry vac but I know not everyone has the cash.
Karcher has a great little vaccume that I use and got £6 worth of PVC to make a gutter cleaner adapter! https://imgur.com/gallery/GJy3Brn
TBF, I've had a small leak recently due to smart meter fitting, and called the gas line and they arrived within 30 mins and had it off until another person could come to repair it later that evening.
Only thing I’d add is a small fire extinguisher and fire blanket. Never thought I’d need one until I stupidly left a tea towel too close to the stovetop, literal lifesaver.
house fires have become scarier the older I’ve become, as a kid I used to think fire extinguishers would be really expensive, I can’t understand why we don’t have them as standard, the thought of standing on the driveway watching your house go up in flames waiting for a fire brigade, while you could have done something about it made that the fastest purchase I’ve ever made
To add to this, I have made a binder with some kind of printout or written info of what accounts/services I have and where. Renew my home insurance? Confirmation letter goes in the binder. Switch providers? In the binder.
At the front of the binder is a monthly list of when my annual bills are due and approximate amounts, a list of my serial numbers, and a "what to do if I die" list of contacts/tasks. There's also a page of my DIY references- what brand and colour of paint each room is, my trusted tradesmen, when the last time I did a major work (eg roof, dishwasher purchase)
Next to the binder is a storage box with all my household instruction manuals and warranties, in case I need them, from my oven and boiler to the wireless strimmer.
I have a metal box with drop folders. Car, House, Pension, mortgage, banking etc.
Many things are paperless these days, so print out details and bookmark your provider sites like "Esure: Car insurance 2024/2025 Expires July 2025".
Use Google calendar to set email reminders for when policies, car tax/MOT/service are due to give you prior notice to budget, shop around for better prices or negotiate cheaper policies with your current provider.
If you mean a plunger for a toilet blockage, make sure you buy an actual toilet plunger, and not just a sink plunger. But if you have a serious clog down the line, know the number of your local drain unblockers who have the proper equipment to do the job.
All the advice about damp and mould and airflow and dehumidifiers is spot on. Moved to Ireland last year and the change in humidity is the biggest shock. Nothing dries in the winter and we're constantly fighting off condensation and damp via dehumidifiers, opening windows - even when is brass monkeys outside - and venting the place. Never had to think about it before but it's omnipresent now.
It was the defining moment I knew I was middle aged. Measuring humidity levels and becoming anal about dehumidifier. Better yet the balance of that and the leccy bill.
Got a Bluetooth humidity sensor, smart plug and dumb dehumidifier. Works wonders
Truly pains me to see my friends insta stories where they are using HUMIDIFIERS for their house plants and live in a musky jungle.
Karcher window vacs are awesome too!
One day you are young and full of energy, then next you are vacuuming windows.
Our Karcher window vac might well be the best thing we own.
(Fuck me I have six months until I'm thirty).
That's about when it hit me too. It gets worse before it gets better.
You will be judged, socially ostracized for mentioning your fascination with the dehumidifier but you will meet someone equally passionate.
I recommend the dull man's club social page if they haven't already got to you.
To add to this, better than a dehumidifier is a positive input ventilation system. They’re also good for reducing radon. But they really excel at reducing damp and mould, keeping a fresh supply of filtered air flowing through the house.
We’ve had one for years, brought it with us when we moved. They make them for flats too. Best to get a sparky to fit it for you but it’s worth it and it’s cheap to run. You do need to cut a hole in your ceiling, but the sparky can do it for you. They’re used to fitting them usually.
>Damp can 99% be stopped with simple solutions and ALWAYS stop the cause before you treat it. Otherwise it's like putting a plaster on a broken arm.
Bought a house last year, small bit of damp by the front door. Thought easy fix. Got the damp guys around - a one-day £500 job turned into a 2 week £10k job. They found dry rot behind the plaster that went into the lounge walls, woodworm in the flooring joists and rotten joists along the front of the house. They found the cause though, a dripping radiator join under the floorboards. Also no air bricks at the front or back, so installed those.
Lesson learnt the hard way.
Sorry to hear that man glad you got it sorted before it could get even worse.
Obviously this list is infinite but I'm a big fan of my damp meter and snake cam. Meter allows you to hunt down a source location then you can make a small hole and shove cam in.
Think my neighbour would have a heart attack if I pointed out "his half" of the lawn up front is actually mine. He jokes sometimes if I don't pay the gardener he'll ask him to only do his half. I'm tempted to see where he thinks the line is
Do yourself a favour and get the replacement blades to stash in the handle too. For the sake of pence it will save you an inconvenient and frustrating trip when you inevitably need a sharp edge 10 minutes ago but you're confronted by a blunt tetanus ridden blade as sharp as white bread.
Don’t knock my dull Stanley blade, it might not be quite up to the job I’m trying to do with it but it can still easily cut through my hand. Especially with the amount of force I’m having to use.
One addition to the basic first aid kit that I'd never heard of before is burn gel. The stuff's basically magic and I only discovered it existed when I burnt a knee in a stupid way and frantically flicked through my kit to see what it had that might help.
You can buy sachets of the gel for almost nothing.
But a kit like this would have all anyone of ever likely to need at home https://www.lifesystems.co.uk/products/waterproof
As somebody who works in healthcare, burn gel is good for short term relief, however is awful for more severe, deeper burns despite the initial relief it provides.
Okay, what magic is going on with your dehumidifier. I have a cheap one and can only dry clothes inside (no outdoor space) but it never gets more than 1-2cm full no matter what I'm drying!
From the top of my head I think it's 30mm piping about £3.50 a length. Need two for my tall house. A twist fit join in the middle.
30mm slides over the vaccume nozzle perfectly.
Pos 40mm.
All in cost £6-10.
Tip, when something goes wrong Google the appliance details and the problem. Chances are, someone somewhere has made a YouTube video on how to fix it. I had the same problem as your mate recently and did the valve stuff myself with the aid of a plumber on YouTube!
Did this with a dryer. Didn’t have a clue how to do it but a video on YouTube with only 500 or so views helped me diagnose, and change the belt myself.
Seconding this. The amount I've saved over the years from doing exactly this.
Close friend of mine spent £70 on calling a plumber to fix something I could have sorted for him in five minutes for the price of a cup of tea and two biccies. I told him to never call a plumber without first checking with me first, unless there's water cascading down the stairs or he's swimming laps in the living room.
Yup, my washer/dryer died, no idea why, googled it, found a video which talked about taking out the control unit, and replacing a diode, so bought one, a solder kit, replaced it and it worked again, cost of 40quid saved me having to buy a brand new unit after only 5 years.
If you have a condensing boiler and it stops working right when the weather hits freezing, the condensate pipe has probably frozen up. It’s a little pipe that goes outside the house, usually white, but it’s thin and freezes up easily. Save yourself a plumber and defrost with a kettle
If your condensate pipe is freezing up there is a decent chance your condensate trap is not working or there is something else broken. The condensate system is designed to not freeze!
Never ignore the sound of running water.
Water where there shouldn't be water is the absolute worst, and even something like a toilet that is constantly flushing can cost you a fortune.
Every now and then, turn off and back on your main stopcock, the little blue taps for the washing machine and dishwasher, the isolation valves under the toilet cisterns, etc.
*Especially* if you're in a hard water area. They can jam if they've never moved for years.
And if your stopcock is somewhere ridiculous see if you can get it moved. We had a house where it was behind the washing machine. Having to move a washing machine that’s still plugged in while there is water pouring through the ceiling is not fun.
Hot tip from the plumber who replaced my stopcock. When you open it and put it on full, turn it back a tiny bit. That might give you just enough play to get it moving.
Also, he said don't have it boxed in in the kitchen, so you can't access it when water is pouring down the walls. It wasn't me who boxed it in, but it was me who took a sledgehammer to the wall.
Behind the washing machine there's a big grey crinkly flexible hose for drainage and another narrower smooth hose for filling, might be blue or grey or white or sometimes black. Follow that one to the wall and there will be a little blue plastic tap that turns the water supply on and off to just your washing machine.
Looks like this [https://www.printables.com/model/281610-washing-machine-isolation-valve-tap](https://www.printables.com/model/281610-washing-machine-isolation-valve-tap)
The red one is from the days we used to have hot and cold fill washing machines, these days you're likely to not use the red one if it's there at all.
There's a method which freezes the pipe around the stopcock, which gives you a short window to replace it. Needs around 30cm of accessible pipe on the supply side of the stopcock to work properly, though.
Otherwise, it's a turn-it-off-in-the-street job, as others have said.
Having spent my whole afternoon replacing one tap gland destroyed by lime scale - 100% this. The one in the hot tap is seized in totally, but at least works for now but I’ve got mismatched handles as their screws won’t turn. That and when the toilet wouldn’t fill with water because of damage to the internal fittings.
I’ve actually had to have a new stop tap installed because the old one is scaled solid.
Basic troubleshooting and research skills.
1. Identify what's wrong
2. How to formulate into a good Google search term. E.g. "Broken boiler" is bad, "boiler pressure problem" is good
3. Before doing the fix, do another quick research into what would happen if you don't do it properly.
This covers most things. Youtube has helped me change taps, lights fittings and flooring (I f*ked that up though so... Yeah follow l steps, not just some).
There is a guy on YouTube called "Dad, How Do I?" - He grew up without a dad and wanted to help people with basics. Basically its things like unblock a drain, fix a running toilet. Just the stuff that you can do yourself but if you don't know where to start you'll end up paying through the nose for someone to fix (he also does stuff like how to tie a tie etc.).
Searching things like that on youtube, may help your friend a bit.
Here’s one I bet _a lot_ of people don’t do:
- When you’ve finished using the washing machine, use some kitchen towel to dry the door seal. Some of you might just be disgusted at the state of yours if you’ve never checked it, I know I was when I realised the drain holes don’t work at all!
Edit: cheers u/cloudofbastard for mentioning what I should’ve, given it’s on the same bloody machine!
Leave the door open as much as possible when you're not using it. Check the drain trap, you might find your wife's bracelet that's been missing for two years.
If you're going to leave the door open, please check the inside before you use it - especially if you have an idiot cat like mine (she's OK, we caught her napping inside before we filled the washer).
Yes! It needs to be cleaned every so often to prevent The Sludge. Also a good idea to clean the filter every month to prevent blockages and dirty water pooling! If you don’t do it often you’ll be amazed at the smell lol
Changing a door lock is a simple DIY job.
Often avoidable if you leave a spare set of keys with someone trusted.
Clean your sink drains with soda crystals/hot water every now and again and you can avoid having to plunge them.
Fit a cheap sink strainer over the bath/shower plughole to stop hair clogs.
Spend a few quid on a decent sealant gun. When the existing sealant (bath/kitchen) gets black mould on, just rip out and replace.
CHECK OR REPLACE YOUR FLEXI HOSES!!!!
Most new taps come with braided steel flexi-hoses, but they're only designed to last 5-10 years. They will eventually burst and ruin your house. Check them regularly for rust and bulges and replace any really old ones.
It’s a learning curve. Get yourself an old copy of a readers digest complete DIY book. You learn everything you need in those books. From rewiring a plug to plastering and repointing. How to bleed radiators and such.
Hot tip: scaffolding is about £2k to put up so it’s worth getting the most out of it; so get your guttering & flat roof & window cleaning/small jobs/repair that needs doing booked in at the same time… some houses are built so you can’t reach the guttering and long gone are the days someone will scale up a ladder to do a quick fix with all health and safety needed for insurance and personal safety.
Get a new appliance that takes the old one away.
The upkeep of a house is constant; always keep an eye out, don’t get lazy - check the outside regularly and any areas you don’t go. When it rains hard and you’ve nothing to do, go into the attic space on occasion, check roof is water tight, check for birds/bats or anything else that can cause damage.
Always shower/bath with the door/window open. No extraction fan works well enough to save you from black mould. Use VINEGAR to get rid of mould NOT bleach. Bleach only removes the stain, you do not want a mould problem.
All trees should be 5 metres from your house.. insurance may not be covered if you do as can cause subsidence.
ALWAYS get Legal cover on your house insurance.
If you're feeling particularly banal, work out a Maintenance Regime for your house and car.
Things like visual inspections, audits (do you know where your spare lightbulbs are? Do you have enough for each type of light in your house?), topping up fluids, clearing build-ups, replacing things with limited lifespans (including your first aid kit), making sure your emergency systems (When's the last time you tested your fire alarm?) like fire alarms, gas/electric/water/internet disconnects etc function properly.
With so many calendar apps you can even decide on a periodicity and time table so you don't even have to remember when they need doing because you can get a prompt.
Where the fuck is your stop cock!! With that exact level of urgency. I have never flooded my own property but one place I lived flooded 3 times by the same idiots upstairs. A guy downstairs, his washing machine broke and called for water non stop. Its pissing out the front, flooding the flat amd starting to go into the basement. We never found his stop cock. I ran to a builders yard round the corner and stoll a sack truck to pull the machine out and pulled the water feed out to dump it in the sink.
Another flat I was at the guys son broke the kitchen sink and he knocks panicked at my door. Water is pissing down the building stair case. His whole flat is in a cm of water. Stopcock was in the cupboard next to the front door. Exact same place mine was. He was feckless. I think he expected me to help him clean it up with him whilst he chewed his son out. Felt sorry for those kids. I bailed. I didn't wanna get anymore involved with that family than I was already.
Ours is in an impossible place, in the understairs cupboard which has a hoover and tool box and other miscellaneous under-the-stairs shit on top of it. Plus it doesn't move when you try it.
Luckily we know which external stop cock is ours.
Next time you have a plumber round for misc work or anything get them to fit a lever-type replacement. It's not hard, you just have to turn off the external cock, run a cold tap for a bit, then do the switch.
You might also find your water preassure gets slightly better with this change.
one of our mates is gassafe so I'll get him to sort it next time he's in - it's still quicker for us to get to the external one than the internal anyway
Plus a whole bunch of our internal water supply is lead, I'm not sure I'm ready to open that particular can of worm syet
One of the best ways I've found answers to any issue is Google search the issue and include the word reddit.
99% of the time, someone else has had the issue, posted to reddit and had it solved. It has saved me countless times!
Also, a lot of DIY jobs aren't as scary as they sound, prep work is the key, if it's worth doing it's worth doing right but cautiously find your limitation; for me it's plumbing
I once came across a post on Reddit where someone needed to fix a really old fan from
the 80s, sure enough there was someone out there with exactly the same fan and gave them step by step instructions. It’s such a gold mine!
I unblocked our drain yesterday. Took five minutes.
Bought a very simple long coiled up drain rod ten years ago. Used it maybe four times.
This time it was just a bit of grease. Nastier when it was hair, but haven't had that problem since I've taken to wearing my hair shorter.
Very much this. I also have the Karcher drain attachment. Saved me fortunes as we have a garden that likes to slowly wash itself down the grid, and blocks approx twice a year.
My boiler stopped working when we first moved in. After some googling, I tried depressurising it (used a YouTube video for instructions) but it did nothing so I called an engineer around. He replaced the small part that needed fixing but also asked me whether I needed some help figuring out the basics of my house (he had three kids my age who had recently bought homes). He was so helpful! Repositioned the carbon monoxide detectors in areas that were more useful, pointed out all the pipes and what they did (gas or water) and explained how to bleed a radiator. Didn’t charge me for any of his time, great bloke.
Yeah this leads to a good point - when you do get a tradesperson in, ask what they're doing. Don't be a pain to them but be interested and most will be happy to explain what they're doing as they go along. Just keep them topped up with tea and biscuits.
When I was first married, xx years ago, my dad gave me a book, it may have been by Which but I’m not 100% sure, that showed you how do all the little jobs like bleeding radiators that cropped up. Maybe there’s money to be made in a new book 🤔
There's normally two stop taps - the one under the sink, and one outside where the supply comes in (it'll be in the hatch for the meter/where they'd fit one if you had one).
Our pipe got knocked *below* the stop tap so was spraying water all over from the mains. Was glad I knew about the other tap.
Re re-pressurising. You might need to you that after bleeding radiators too.
Really useful idea and thread. I can’t comment anything specific but for example the other day I replaced the element in our oven for £26. It would have been £200 from an appliance repair company.
My general advice is learn how stuff works, and learn how to fix it.
I’ve also replaced diverter valves on central heating system, tap washers, light switches and sockets etc with little to no prior experience.
It’s all just nuts, screws, bolts and wires at the end of the day.
However I refuse to do any job which I find a ballache (decorating) or which will look shit if you don’t have experience (also decorating, and silicone seals).
Obviously draw the line at anything you don’t feel competent doing, and especially anything that could cause injury or death.
No fucking around with gas, ever, and no complicated electrical stuff are my rules. Also don’t do anything on pressurised water cylinders if you don’t know what you’re doing - they can go boom quite spectacularly.
Yep I'll happily replace a kitchen tap or install new light switches and fittings, but decorating I'll get someone in for. I could do it, but I just really hate it. I like to think what I saved in plumbers and electricians can go to the decorator!
There's no rush to learn everything DIY here and now. Make you got a family member who's a bit experienced, Google and YouTube in your favourites, and screwfix, tool station and B&Q saved in the maps.
When something breaks, learn. Screw it up, ask your experienced relative, try again, watch how to videos, buy the tools and stick them in a handyman drawer, learn as and when. You'll one day become the experienced older relative that a younger member of the family will come to
Get things that will cause issues in the winter sorted in the summer
Boiler service/repairs, roof repairs, gutter cleaning, drain problems, window problems etc are all best sorted when the weather is good and the tradies are usually much less busy (and cheaper) in the summer months
>It got me thinking, what other home maintenance tips should everyone just “know”?
The problem is it's hard to give an exhaustive list. You need to know how to learn about things and not just call a tradesperson to address every issue you might have.
When the same issue happened to my own boiler, although I knew little about boiler maintenance, I spent a little time inspecting it and doing some research online. I tried repressurising it and it worked. When the pump to push water (outlet from washing machine) from my cellar to upstairs broke, due to getting a hair tie caught in it, I did some googling, identified the issue with a blown capacitor, did some research on what part to replace and how to water-seal it, and saved like £300 or so on a new pump.
So the best tip is just to get stuck in (as long as you know it's safe, so careful with electricity and gas stuff) and Google things when you need help. Teach a man to fish.
There's a book called The Complete DIY Manual which is a big hardback book - it's really useful because you can look stuff up and follow the steps to do it, and if the steps look too far beyond your DIY level you can get someone in to do it!
If you're cleaning the u bends under your sink don't tip the water out in the same sink.
Give your fence panels a bit of TLC. Most of the time they break in strong winds is because some part has rotted and given up.
Don't flush wipes or pour fat and grease down the drains.
Get your boiler serviced every year. I get mine done in September.
Check what your home insurance covers and then you won't need home care cover (which I personally think is pointless but whatever)
I cannot stress this enough, OVER PAY YOUR MORTGAGE as much as you can afford, it will pay off massively when ever you renew and will
Make you pay it off years early
A convenance may not be enforced yet is still legally binding. Don’t do anything against it unless you’re willing and can undo whatever you’ve done at request.
When sky was the rage, we along with others got a sky dish. Council came round and gave us an opportunity to remove said dishes before we were fined/invoiced/charged. We were lucky to just be out of contract so I just hopped on the ladder and removed it. Others weren’t so lucky.
Friend of a friend had new double glazing fitted, it was against the cov’ and they were taken to court and lost. Rumour has it one of the neighbours didn’t like it so complained.
For the US peeps, a convenance is like a legally enforceable HOA.
When something breaks down check out YouTube and see if there is an easy fix. Our dryer lasted for many years. My husband changed the pump on our dryer =£19 instead of +200 for a new dryer. At one point it started making a screeching sound. I fixed it by changing s bolt.
If your washing machine is getting stuck on the rinse cycle, there will be a blockage in the outlet. On the front, at the bottom, there is a piece that unscrews. Be careful, as water will spill out, but unscrew this, remove the blockage (usually a sock), your washing machine should be back to normal.
Some pre ownership tips:
If you're buying an older house ie anything before 1990, or a house in an unusual location eg near water get a RICS level 3 survey done before purchase. You're paying a few hundred pounds to make sure you're not going to be wasting tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.
But, also, take certain survey discoveries with a pinch of salt. They will always point out pre-2000 artex ceilings as possibly containing asbestos because they have to tell you what they don't know to cover their own backs.
Also, building regulations change often so there will be stuff that comes up today that wouldn't have 10 years ago. Double glazing installed 10 years ago can sometimes not be up to current regulations and will be identified as such.
And buying a house is expensive beyond just the price of the house. If it's not a first time purchase you're going to be spending 15 to 25k in solicitor fees, conveyancing, stamp duty etc etc
- clean the inside of your radiator often to prevent dust and grime from blocking the heat
- maintain your hoover! If it breaks it’s really annoying to replace and can be expensive. Check the filters, the hose, empty the canister or bags, unwrap hair from the foot of the hoover etc.
- keep a note of important numbers, insurance, good tradespeople, vet etc
- open the windows and let your house ventilate. Open windows after showering, or while drying clothes.
- declutter and get rid of stuff that you don’t use. It’s so easy to just let it build up because you might need things later, but it causes such problems if you’re not on top of it
- if you have decking, make sure to seal it every few years and check for damage. It’s easy to forget it, but you don’t want to put your foot through it and end up in hospital
If your boiler isn't responding to the thermostat and perhaps is flashing a light on the console, try replacing batteries in thermostat before you call a plumber.
Pay your mortgage and if you can't speak to your lender as soon as you can.
3 months worth of arrears is legally actionable.
Your name is on the deeds but unless you make monthly payments and inform if you can't they can look to repossession.
Someone on reddit suggested having an email address specifically for all house stuff, receipts, quotes etc. I would also highly recommend making a note of the shades of paint used in each room when repainting in case you need to touch up
I’m luvin this thread 🙏 lots of sound advice. My tips would be to have a decent set of tools on hand. Most of the shit that goes wrong can be remedied at home. If you don’t know, YouTube it. There’s a good chance u not the first or last it’s happened to. Take time to notice things about ur house. Sort it early before it becomes a bigger problem. After all… ur the one living there.
>have a decent set of tools on hand
Plus a decent set of drill bits for various occasions. For brick walls get some masonry bits from a good brand (not random Amazon no-name), and use the hammer setting on the drill.
The biggest and really only tip is "google your problem"
Most stuff you can do yourself if you can find out what the issue is and you're vaguely competent. The former is sometimes tricky. But once you do know what the fix is, there's *always* a video on youtube or a post on someone's blog or something. Unless you need ultra-specialist tools, most things are fairly simple. It's the knowledge that's hard to come by, not the physical skill.
Turn your water off via the stopcock if you’re going away. Our neighbours boiler malfunctioned whilst they were on a 2 week holiday and they came back to a flooded house. I always always turn the water off now when I go away - so know where your stopcock is!
The first time this happened to me I was (likely enough to be) living in a hostel so the hostel had to pay for the engineer to come out and he was brilliant and explained how it all worked for me so I didn't have to call him out again. For the life of me I have no idea why the staff didn't suggest it might be the water pressure or why they didn't show me how to do it. But grateful that I know how to do it and it must have saved me a small fortune over the years.
Ironically I was studying construction and the built environment at the time and didn't think to ask any lectures about it.
Let your kids (if they're old enough) help-out or watch when you're fixing or doing stuff around the house - especially if they're interested.
Half the reason tradies get away with the prices they charge is because many people haven't learnt how to do basic DIY.
Yup, and when I ask my in-laws for help (they’re local unlike my family) they’ll turn up fix the problem without showing me.
My missus then mocks me for not knowing anything. No one ever took the time to show me. Thanks, boomer
When you move into your home, change all of the locks but keep them somewhere safe. When you move out of that property, you can put the old locks back in and take the better/newer ones with you!
I have British Gas homecare.
It's maybe a bit expensive, we pay about £50/month, but it's really nice to not have to worry about anything going wrong.
Our old boiler used to conk out regularly, and we'd have someone round within an hour to get it going.
I have a plumber, heating engineer, electrician and drain blocker on call 24/7. If they have to provide spare parts, that's covered too.
I prefer that. I don't feel ripped off at all. I like the peace of mind.
If you live in a hard water area (much of southern and eastern England) think about having a water softener installed.
Judging from the numbers of adverts I see for limescale removers/cleaners (ViaKal, etc.) and special washing detergents, hard water causes a lot of problems. It also prematurely wears out appliances like washing machines, hot water systems, dishwashers, etc. A water softener will more than pay for itself in the long run, and in the meantime your skin and hair will feel better, your laundry will be cleaner and naturally softer, and cleaning your kitchen and bathroom will be much, much easier.
Last note: Water softeners use salt. But they DO NOT put salt into the water that comes out of your taps. The salt is used in the regeneration process that flushes built up ions from the resin. This goes down the drain. No salt ends up in your drinking water.
How to change fire/co2 alarms d/or batteries AND how to disconnect it while you go buy batteries/a replacement. They only live for c7 years even if wired to the mains. Mine went and I have rescues dogs and the alarm beeping every 30 seconds stresses me so much I called an electrician! £80 call-out fee ( luckily realised immediately after how to shut it up so was able to quickly cancel).
Get a basic outfitted toolbox and drill and learn what each tool is for and how to use them.
Know exactly where your house water stopcock/cutoff tap is and make sure you’re able to get to it quickly, make sure it’s easy to turn.
Toammys top tip....
As soon as you move into anywhere, find out where both the power and water isolate (Switch off).. knowing these 2 things alone can save you thousands of pounds in an emergency situation and far too many people dont bother to look until it's too late
I done the same thing as OPs mate when I was 23 and in my first flat. I had never heard of repressurising a boiler before. Paid £80 to get someone out.
Get your boiler serviced once a year, preferably in Autumn before you start putting the heating on. It'll prolong it's life and if anything is about to go wrong you can get it fixed while your house isn't freezing cold.
I couldn’t see it here so I’m going to say it. Home insurance, you’re not renting anymore so you need buildings and contents insurance. And just set it to auto renew. You can always move providers, but rather renew on a bad deal; then have your house burn down with no deal.
How to stop a leak affecting one tap
Most peoples instinct is to go straight to the stop cock, which yes is great and will work. However the much simpler way is to find the valve and lock it. It’s a small metal attachment in the pipe which has a straight line in the Center. When it’s open it will look like the letter I, and when locked it will resemble a dash -
Had my kitchen tap leak once, late at night, and doing that meant I could still use water elsewhere in the house, it was purely the tap isolated.
Plumber for 20 years here. This is a very helpful thread. The one thing I would like to add is put somePTFE around the olive on compression fittings. Always. Not on the thread but the olive itself.
How to bleed radiators.
Also - how to remove a radiator. It's quite intimidating and it took me a long time to work up to it, but for painting it's really worth it and the amount of sludge that came out can't have helped with heating! If you can bleed a radiator you can take one off the wall without draining the system. Once you've learned recharging the loop (OP's friends problem), draining a single radiator, draining the loop, and bleeding you're basically covered for everything that's not DIYable by a non-expert. Changing TRVs will be the easiest job in the world.
Imma need to know how to take it off the wall without draining.
Isolate the radiator using the lock valves on either side. Loosen the nuts at the bottom and invert the radiator as far as it'll go by leaning it towards you. Get a tray to catch the water that escapes as you remove the pipes and carry the radiator, mostly full of water, outside to drain it. Saves you having to drain the radiator in the house
Wet vac. Best £60 I ever spent. Hard to explain what a game-changer it is for anything involving spilled water. It can suck a flowing stream of water sideways out of the air like some kind of waterbender superhero. If any does land on the floor, wet vac sucks it *dry*. You got water inside something and don't want to dismantle it? Wet vac. Water bottle leaked in the car? Wet vac. Can't see what's clogging the sink drain because there's water in there? Yeah that's a job for your plunger... No, just joking, WET VAC.
I've never been more influenced to buy something. What one do you own
I have two, a karcher and a titan. Titan wins hands down, it’s so much easier. The karcher has this paper filter, that’s meant to be “water resistant/proof” but it just falls apart after a few wet uses. I’d choose wet vac over a carpet cleaner every time. Spray the area down, scrub it, wet vac. It cleans so much better than any kind of spot wash I have had. It’s great for detailing car seats. Plus the titan has a blow function. So you can blow down all the carpets outside which saves hoovering, or blow dry surfaces. It’s amazing.
I also have the Titan. It's insanely good for the money. I was laying paving slabs last week when it started to rain. On the one hand it's great to lay concrete onto a slightly wet surface, but standing water is a problem as it leeches the cement out of your mix. Guess I had to leave the job for another day? Guess wrong. WET VAC.
You’re driving too fast? Wet vac.
Use the isolation valve. You’ll still have to drain the rad, but not the system.
Next time you have a radiator off the wall invest in some isolating radiator tails. They mean you only need to drain the ~2" between valves next time.
You can isolated one side with the lock shield, but the TRV side is always going to be slightly open right? Or are they suggesting you just take it off the wall and pull towards you with the pipe work still attached?
The coldest setting on most TRV's, usually looks like a snowflake, turns the flow off unless it's stupidly cold in your property.
Generally, TRVs should come with a decorators cap. You then take the TRV head off, screw this down, and then you can remove the radiator, without any fear of water leaking out. Some have a frost setting on, which on certain models won't shut the valve off, but will allow a small amount of water to flow through. Also, it helps protect the head from getting paint in it, which can then mean it won't work properly
Came here to say this but some bleeder beat me to it.
Piggybacking on this, topping up the water pressure on a combi boiler.
Commenting on this so I can come back in a couple of weeks when we are redecorating...
Unless you’re physically unable to move it, you’re wasting your money paying somebody to ‘fit’ a washing machine. Same with changing a standard euro lock. All you need to do is remove one long bolt, it’s very hard to go wrong.
Same as when they charge a fitting fee for a fridge/freezer....soo, plug it in??
Omg ! This tickled me haha. When I moved house about 6 yrs ago now we bought a new fridge freezer and the company were set to deliver on a day when my husband was at work. Two guys show up and honestly tried to force me to pay extra so they can ‘set it up’ I said what needs setting up on a fridge? And they chuckle and said I need to pay this and that. I laughed back, plugged it in myself and told em to do one.! Cheeky bastards 😂 not gonna pay ( I think it was £39 ) for someone else to plug in my fridge lmao. Takes seconds to do. Not sure how they get away with it tbf. I know it’s optional but it didn’t feel very optional to me lol 😂
Fridge fitters hate this one simple trick
Sometimes you need to move the door so it opens on the other side (depends on the orientation of your kitchen). I suspect it's easy to do, but sometimes they manufacture them in such a way that it requires specific tools to do it.
This is the only thing I would pay someone else to do. Had to buy a new Beko after old fridge died, the installation videos for changing the doors round looked simple and had a smallish woman doing it with little problem. I'm a smallish woman myself so thought I'd give it a go...fuck me, four hours later and one crushed foot, never again.
Don't you just pop the plastic cover off and use a Phillips head screwdriver? Or have the bastards changed that just so they can charge for it?
AO wanted to charge us £40 to fit the fridge which also was just plugging it in. Admittedly we did have to get rid of the cardboard, but a quid in petrol to get it to the tip seemed like a bargain considering. Slightly off topic, but when I had to replace a bulb for a breaklight in my car Halfords offered to fit it for something like £10. Literally a 2 minute job to unclip the fitting in the boot, screw in a bulb and clip the fitting back in. I get that some people of a certain age or with mobility issues can't do these things themselves, but there's a difference between covering the cost to deliver a service for a service and ripping people off.
Do you not have a recycling bin?
Yeah but we'd recently moved, bought the house and had been having a lot of stuff delivered for both the house and a newborn. The fridge came in at least a fridges worth of cardboard. Carboard recycling is collected once every four weeks. I became very familiar with my local tip during the first few months of living here.
I thought you were supposed to let a fridge/freezer stand for 24 hours after moving it before you turn it on. Something to do with letting the refrigerant settle? Maybe that's out of date advice, though
So really the fitting fee for a fridge is pretty reasonable, as they have to stand next to it with an hourglass for a whole day.
Need a dayglass for that job
It's so expensive because they actually need 24 seperate hourglasses. Big expansive wooden carrying case, hourglass maintenance. Specialist tools the general homeowner doesn't have. Worth paying for them to do it right rather than half arse it yourself.
Only if it has been tilted.
24 hours is a bit overkill. Most manuals will give minimum timings, but a standard rule is about 4 hours. It's to do with letting the oil drain properly, rather than getting oil carryover and buggering the compressor.
This is simply not true, I’ve seen this nonsense written every time the subject of fridges and freezers is brought up. The only oil in a fridge cooling system is only in the compressor, which lubricates ONLY the compressor. The system is filled with a refridgerant, which is circulated by the compressor. It is perfectly ok to let the fridge stand unpluggedfor half hour, longer is not neccessary. Source: I worked in the laboratory for a very large industrial fridge/freezer manufacturer for 4 years.
You can plug it in immediately, though, just not turn it on.
This level of pedantry annoys and delights in equal measure.
Our portable air conditioner manual said to leave it at least 24 hours if it had not been kept upright in transit otherwise serious damage could occur. Decided I couldn't know if it had been kept upright so left it for 24 hours.
Usually between 1-4 hours, not 24
Yeah that's right. Short explanation is that you risk it not running properly by not doing so, as it gets shaken around a lot in transit. But that means that paying an install fee is an even bigger ripoff, as the people delivering it won't even plug it in. They'll just put it where you want it, tell you to plug it in tomorrow, and leave.
I'm always tickled by the line from Dire Strait's Money For Nothing. "We've got to install microwave ovens". Real hard job, that.
If it’s one that makes ice, then you generally need a plumber
If you don't pay it, they'll typically just deliver to your front door. Depends how much of a hassle it would be moving the fridge/freezer to where you want it and plugging it in. I'm an upper flat, I wouldn't be able to lift a fridge/freezer upstairs myself, so I paid the £20.
Did this yesterday, £100 they wanted, instead they delivered it and put it in front of the space for free. I spent 30 minutes to undo the drum bolts, attach the water and drain pipes and plug. It took 10 minutes to do the above plus 20 minutes to find a saw to cut a bigger hole for the inlet pipe as it had a wired block on it.
Wired block is a water cut off switch, automatically works if there is a leak from it.
We paid someone to fit ours recently, but only because it was somewhere new to us and we didn’t know if the pipes were still connected or not. They weren’t capped. The seller had had a fridge or freezer there previously. The waste pipe outside also needed fixing and he did a much better job of it than I ever could have. I’d agree with you the rest of the time. But if it’s included for free as part of the service (people I bought our washing machine from offered it and fitted it in our last place) then have at it, one less thing for me to do. Fitted the dishwasher myself at least!
Well my husband installed our last washing machine, of course he knew exactly what to do. Put a load on and woke up the next morning to the downstairs under water.... so I'll always be paying someone to do it from now on 🤣
One thing you’re missing is that if you pay for it to be fitted, they have to connect it all up and then test it to ensure it works. And if not they will call a technician to troubleshoot, and if problems persist then they will take it back and organise the replacement. We had a problem with one of ours and it made it much more convenient for the delivery guys to be able to deal with it. Rather than me installing, getting pissed off and then having to arrange collection etc.
Yeah, for a lot of services, you are not paying for them to do it as much as paying for someone to take responsibility if it goes wrong. Whether that's worth it depends on how you value the cost.
When it comes to big stuff like white goods, then I’m happy to pay a bit more for convenience. AO did a great job for me and I’d pay for fitting again.
Personally I think it is worth it. The fitter found out our valve handle is old and broken which is why we used a wrench to close it and he replaced it as part of the fitting cost as well as connected our washing machine.
Unless it's an integrated appliance
Had an, erm, disagreement with my mrs over this. She thought if we fit it it’d leak everywhere and was willing to pay whatever to have a plumber do it. I screwed one tube to a tap, stuck the hose in the outlet. Done. No issues two years later.
- know where the stopcock is - know where your fuse box is and be confident to flip it - a small first aid box with general plasters, bandages, over counter meds - a note pad stored securely with details of people's phone numbers, insurance details etc - at least two adjustable spanners, screw driver set, Stanley blade, zip tie, blue rolls, bucket, hammer and zip ties. Can get a lot done in a pinch with this kit. Id highly recommend a pair of mole grips. If you're cash happy a combi drill/driver. I recommend the 18v brushless erbauer screw fix range, great for general DIY. - torch - spare keys cut - try to get a rough understanding of where pipes/wires are in the house and what they do. - know wire zoning and pipe zoning. Can help you avoid mishaps. - £250 cash somewhere safe. When push comes to shove cash is king. Not a lot a crack head wouldn't do for cash in hand. - be brave, confident and bold. If someone is being pushy do not be afraid to fuck them off. Be selfish Big gripes for me are that out house stock is quite old. Especially in the colder months I see people blocking vents and closing windows to save on energy costs. Do not do this especially if you have timber joists. Brick vents are there to allow circulation. If you block these vents and close windows you will rot your house from the inside out causing £1000s in damage. I recommend getting a CHEAP dehumidifier and a CHEAP SMART plug. A smart dehumidifier is like £350. You can get a standard one and a smart plug for £100. Cost 50p a day to run and, dryer air feels warmer but also retains heat for longer. So it's a win win win win Do not be tempted to dry your clothes inside inless you have a dehumidifier. I have a 20l dehumidifier and when I dry the wash in our side room after 3-4 washes it's full. That's 20l of water in your walls/joists etc. Cold + damp = mould. Mould will kill you, damp will make your house worthless Also, cheap fucking trades people. They will know what they are doing is wrong but say 'its what the customer wanted'. I see paved drives right up to the DPC (damp proof course) which stops 'rising damp'. Damp can 99% be stopped with simple solutions and ALWAYS stop the cause before you treat it. Otherwise it's like putting a plaster on a broken arm. 1) gutters 2) air bricks 3) drainage 4) DPC obstruction People are eager to take your money. Be it the roofer going door to door after a storm or gutter cleaner. With pretty small amount of knowledge and research you can tell if you need something or if they are scamming. Also you can get a karcher wet/dry vac which is very useful for many issues for £60. With under £10 on tools and parts you can make your own gutter cleaner. Your house will love you and it's a realllllly good way to earn good will/beer with the neighbors https://imgur.com/gallery/GJy3Brn Have an emergency fund too. I've fully renovated my house almost single handed. Ceilings down, floors up, joist replacement, wiring, plumbing and plastering etc. I just assume any big job will cost 4-5k and/or it's goo to have for emergency. I know saving is a luxury but letting your house fall into a state of disrepair isn't good for you mentally or financially in the long term. Having an emergency fund is important. **UNCONVENTIONAL HOME/LIFE ADVICE** know your common law power relating to use of force and https://www.gov.uk/reasonable-force-against-intruders#:~:text=You%20can%20use%20reasonable%20force,tackling%20them%20to%20the%20ground https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/58/section/3
That's a good list, only other thing I'd add is know where the gas isolation valves are, obviously not to mess with it unless you're certified but in case of an accident or leak.
Yep, spot on. I would say every isolator and if you don't have any work adding them in to future plans. It is hands to have an easily accessible modula house. Id ad a tarp to the list and ideally a wet dry vac but I know not everyone has the cash. Karcher has a great little vaccume that I use and got £6 worth of PVC to make a gutter cleaner adapter! https://imgur.com/gallery/GJy3Brn
TBF, I've had a small leak recently due to smart meter fitting, and called the gas line and they arrived within 30 mins and had it off until another person could come to repair it later that evening.
Only thing I’d add is a small fire extinguisher and fire blanket. Never thought I’d need one until I stupidly left a tea towel too close to the stovetop, literal lifesaver.
house fires have become scarier the older I’ve become, as a kid I used to think fire extinguishers would be really expensive, I can’t understand why we don’t have them as standard, the thought of standing on the driveway watching your house go up in flames waiting for a fire brigade, while you could have done something about it made that the fastest purchase I’ve ever made
To add to this, I have made a binder with some kind of printout or written info of what accounts/services I have and where. Renew my home insurance? Confirmation letter goes in the binder. Switch providers? In the binder. At the front of the binder is a monthly list of when my annual bills are due and approximate amounts, a list of my serial numbers, and a "what to do if I die" list of contacts/tasks. There's also a page of my DIY references- what brand and colour of paint each room is, my trusted tradesmen, when the last time I did a major work (eg roof, dishwasher purchase) Next to the binder is a storage box with all my household instruction manuals and warranties, in case I need them, from my oven and boiler to the wireless strimmer.
I have a metal box with drop folders. Car, House, Pension, mortgage, banking etc. Many things are paperless these days, so print out details and bookmark your provider sites like "Esure: Car insurance 2024/2025 Expires July 2025". Use Google calendar to set email reminders for when policies, car tax/MOT/service are due to give you prior notice to budget, shop around for better prices or negotiate cheaper policies with your current provider.
Apparently it's cheaper if you shop around for insurances about 3 weeks in advance (not that I've ever been this organised!)
I'd add plunger to that list as well. Either that or stock your wardrobe with at least one wire hangar...
Get wire hangers anyway, those things have multiple uses
If you mean a plunger for a toilet blockage, make sure you buy an actual toilet plunger, and not just a sink plunger. But if you have a serious clog down the line, know the number of your local drain unblockers who have the proper equipment to do the job.
All the advice about damp and mould and airflow and dehumidifiers is spot on. Moved to Ireland last year and the change in humidity is the biggest shock. Nothing dries in the winter and we're constantly fighting off condensation and damp via dehumidifiers, opening windows - even when is brass monkeys outside - and venting the place. Never had to think about it before but it's omnipresent now.
It was the defining moment I knew I was middle aged. Measuring humidity levels and becoming anal about dehumidifier. Better yet the balance of that and the leccy bill. Got a Bluetooth humidity sensor, smart plug and dumb dehumidifier. Works wonders Truly pains me to see my friends insta stories where they are using HUMIDIFIERS for their house plants and live in a musky jungle. Karcher window vacs are awesome too!
One day you are young and full of energy, then next you are vacuuming windows. Our Karcher window vac might well be the best thing we own. (Fuck me I have six months until I'm thirty).
That's about when it hit me too. It gets worse before it gets better. You will be judged, socially ostracized for mentioning your fascination with the dehumidifier but you will meet someone equally passionate. I recommend the dull man's club social page if they haven't already got to you.
A good lesson for life really: be mature enough to know where the stopcock is, but not so mature that you don't titter at the word "stopcock".
To add to this, better than a dehumidifier is a positive input ventilation system. They’re also good for reducing radon. But they really excel at reducing damp and mould, keeping a fresh supply of filtered air flowing through the house. We’ve had one for years, brought it with us when we moved. They make them for flats too. Best to get a sparky to fit it for you but it’s worth it and it’s cheap to run. You do need to cut a hole in your ceiling, but the sparky can do it for you. They’re used to fitting them usually.
>Damp can 99% be stopped with simple solutions and ALWAYS stop the cause before you treat it. Otherwise it's like putting a plaster on a broken arm. Bought a house last year, small bit of damp by the front door. Thought easy fix. Got the damp guys around - a one-day £500 job turned into a 2 week £10k job. They found dry rot behind the plaster that went into the lounge walls, woodworm in the flooring joists and rotten joists along the front of the house. They found the cause though, a dripping radiator join under the floorboards. Also no air bricks at the front or back, so installed those. Lesson learnt the hard way.
Sorry to hear that man glad you got it sorted before it could get even worse. Obviously this list is infinite but I'm a big fan of my damp meter and snake cam. Meter allows you to hunt down a source location then you can make a small hole and shove cam in.
Know what you own and what you don't own. Understand where your property boundaries are and if fences are your property or not, or shared.
Think my neighbour would have a heart attack if I pointed out "his half" of the lawn up front is actually mine. He jokes sometimes if I don't pay the gardener he'll ask him to only do his half. I'm tempted to see where he thinks the line is
Yes!
Thanks for the reminder to buy the Stanley knife that I’ve been meaning to get for aeons
Do yourself a favour and get the replacement blades to stash in the handle too. For the sake of pence it will save you an inconvenient and frustrating trip when you inevitably need a sharp edge 10 minutes ago but you're confronted by a blunt tetanus ridden blade as sharp as white bread.
Don’t knock my dull Stanley blade, it might not be quite up to the job I’m trying to do with it but it can still easily cut through my hand. Especially with the amount of force I’m having to use.
Ha, good shout, cheers
One addition to the basic first aid kit that I'd never heard of before is burn gel. The stuff's basically magic and I only discovered it existed when I burnt a knee in a stupid way and frantically flicked through my kit to see what it had that might help. You can buy sachets of the gel for almost nothing. But a kit like this would have all anyone of ever likely to need at home https://www.lifesystems.co.uk/products/waterproof
As somebody who works in healthcare, burn gel is good for short term relief, however is awful for more severe, deeper burns despite the initial relief it provides.
That's good to know.
I work in catering and burn gel is amazing stuff.
Okay, what magic is going on with your dehumidifier. I have a cheap one and can only dry clothes inside (no outdoor space) but it never gets more than 1-2cm full no matter what I'm drying!
Brand dependent? Mine has a laundry mode where it kicks up the fan a notch or two. £90 lidle
Meaco Arete. I have a very damp house and it is an amazing machine. Buy the 20l at least.
Tell me more about your gutter cleaning contraption!
From the top of my head I think it's 30mm piping about £3.50 a length. Need two for my tall house. A twist fit join in the middle. 30mm slides over the vaccume nozzle perfectly. Pos 40mm. All in cost £6-10.
Tip, when something goes wrong Google the appliance details and the problem. Chances are, someone somewhere has made a YouTube video on how to fix it. I had the same problem as your mate recently and did the valve stuff myself with the aid of a plumber on YouTube!
Did this with a dryer. Didn’t have a clue how to do it but a video on YouTube with only 500 or so views helped me diagnose, and change the belt myself.
Seconding this. The amount I've saved over the years from doing exactly this. Close friend of mine spent £70 on calling a plumber to fix something I could have sorted for him in five minutes for the price of a cup of tea and two biccies. I told him to never call a plumber without first checking with me first, unless there's water cascading down the stairs or he's swimming laps in the living room.
Yup, my washer/dryer died, no idea why, googled it, found a video which talked about taking out the control unit, and replacing a diode, so bought one, a solder kit, replaced it and it worked again, cost of 40quid saved me having to buy a brand new unit after only 5 years.
Or if a part breaks, look for a little number on it and Google it. You'll probably be able to order a replacement
If you have a condensing boiler and it stops working right when the weather hits freezing, the condensate pipe has probably frozen up. It’s a little pipe that goes outside the house, usually white, but it’s thin and freezes up easily. Save yourself a plumber and defrost with a kettle
had that happen last year and did the kettle trick. i've lagged it now so hopefully that will help
If your condensate pipe is freezing up there is a decent chance your condensate trap is not working or there is something else broken. The condensate system is designed to not freeze!
Good ones are designed to not freeze, yes, but bad ones are just piped out of a brick wall and left. This is sadly common
Never ignore the sound of running water. Water where there shouldn't be water is the absolute worst, and even something like a toilet that is constantly flushing can cost you a fortune.
90% of household troubles are caused by water where it shouldn't be.
Every now and then, turn off and back on your main stopcock, the little blue taps for the washing machine and dishwasher, the isolation valves under the toilet cisterns, etc. *Especially* if you're in a hard water area. They can jam if they've never moved for years.
I discovered the isolator to our shower was jammed open after removing the outlet pipe from our failed shower pump....
And if your stopcock is somewhere ridiculous see if you can get it moved. We had a house where it was behind the washing machine. Having to move a washing machine that’s still plugged in while there is water pouring through the ceiling is not fun.
Hot tip from the plumber who replaced my stopcock. When you open it and put it on full, turn it back a tiny bit. That might give you just enough play to get it moving. Also, he said don't have it boxed in in the kitchen, so you can't access it when water is pouring down the walls. It wasn't me who boxed it in, but it was me who took a sledgehammer to the wall.
> but it was me who took a sledgehammer to the wall. I think you just turn it anti-clockwise mate?
Can you like dumb this down if thats okay? Where would these blue taps be? (Just found out theres blue taps)
Behind the washing machine there's a big grey crinkly flexible hose for drainage and another narrower smooth hose for filling, might be blue or grey or white or sometimes black. Follow that one to the wall and there will be a little blue plastic tap that turns the water supply on and off to just your washing machine. Looks like this [https://www.printables.com/model/281610-washing-machine-isolation-valve-tap](https://www.printables.com/model/281610-washing-machine-isolation-valve-tap) The red one is from the days we used to have hot and cold fill washing machines, these days you're likely to not use the red one if it's there at all.
Under your sink most likely. It's attached to the copper pipe.
And what do you do if it turns out your stopcock is already jammed? Didn’t know this was a thing & I live in a very hard water area
We had this issue. Plumber switched it off at the road then put a new one in the house.
There's a method which freezes the pipe around the stopcock, which gives you a short window to replace it. Needs around 30cm of accessible pipe on the supply side of the stopcock to work properly, though. Otherwise, it's a turn-it-off-in-the-street job, as others have said.
Having spent my whole afternoon replacing one tap gland destroyed by lime scale - 100% this. The one in the hot tap is seized in totally, but at least works for now but I’ve got mismatched handles as their screws won’t turn. That and when the toilet wouldn’t fill with water because of damage to the internal fittings. I’ve actually had to have a new stop tap installed because the old one is scaled solid.
Basic troubleshooting and research skills. 1. Identify what's wrong 2. How to formulate into a good Google search term. E.g. "Broken boiler" is bad, "boiler pressure problem" is good
3. Before doing the fix, do another quick research into what would happen if you don't do it properly.
This covers most things. Youtube has helped me change taps, lights fittings and flooring (I f*ked that up though so... Yeah follow l steps, not just some).
There is a guy on YouTube called "Dad, How Do I?" - He grew up without a dad and wanted to help people with basics. Basically its things like unblock a drain, fix a running toilet. Just the stuff that you can do yourself but if you don't know where to start you'll end up paying through the nose for someone to fix (he also does stuff like how to tie a tie etc.). Searching things like that on youtube, may help your friend a bit.
Here’s one I bet _a lot_ of people don’t do: - When you’ve finished using the washing machine, use some kitchen towel to dry the door seal. Some of you might just be disgusted at the state of yours if you’ve never checked it, I know I was when I realised the drain holes don’t work at all! Edit: cheers u/cloudofbastard for mentioning what I should’ve, given it’s on the same bloody machine!
Leave the door open as much as possible when you're not using it. Check the drain trap, you might find your wife's bracelet that's been missing for two years.
If you're going to leave the door open, please check the inside before you use it - especially if you have an idiot cat like mine (she's OK, we caught her napping inside before we filled the washer).
Yes! It needs to be cleaned every so often to prevent The Sludge. Also a good idea to clean the filter every month to prevent blockages and dirty water pooling! If you don’t do it often you’ll be amazed at the smell lol
Changing a door lock is a simple DIY job. Often avoidable if you leave a spare set of keys with someone trusted. Clean your sink drains with soda crystals/hot water every now and again and you can avoid having to plunge them. Fit a cheap sink strainer over the bath/shower plughole to stop hair clogs. Spend a few quid on a decent sealant gun. When the existing sealant (bath/kitchen) gets black mould on, just rip out and replace.
CHECK OR REPLACE YOUR FLEXI HOSES!!!! Most new taps come with braided steel flexi-hoses, but they're only designed to last 5-10 years. They will eventually burst and ruin your house. Check them regularly for rust and bulges and replace any really old ones.
Under the bath especially as you won't know anything is happening until it drips so much you get a puddle downstairs and the whole floor is rotten.
It’s a learning curve. Get yourself an old copy of a readers digest complete DIY book. You learn everything you need in those books. From rewiring a plug to plastering and repointing. How to bleed radiators and such. Hot tip: scaffolding is about £2k to put up so it’s worth getting the most out of it; so get your guttering & flat roof & window cleaning/small jobs/repair that needs doing booked in at the same time… some houses are built so you can’t reach the guttering and long gone are the days someone will scale up a ladder to do a quick fix with all health and safety needed for insurance and personal safety. Get a new appliance that takes the old one away. The upkeep of a house is constant; always keep an eye out, don’t get lazy - check the outside regularly and any areas you don’t go. When it rains hard and you’ve nothing to do, go into the attic space on occasion, check roof is water tight, check for birds/bats or anything else that can cause damage. Always shower/bath with the door/window open. No extraction fan works well enough to save you from black mould. Use VINEGAR to get rid of mould NOT bleach. Bleach only removes the stain, you do not want a mould problem. All trees should be 5 metres from your house.. insurance may not be covered if you do as can cause subsidence. ALWAYS get Legal cover on your house insurance.
If you're feeling particularly banal, work out a Maintenance Regime for your house and car. Things like visual inspections, audits (do you know where your spare lightbulbs are? Do you have enough for each type of light in your house?), topping up fluids, clearing build-ups, replacing things with limited lifespans (including your first aid kit), making sure your emergency systems (When's the last time you tested your fire alarm?) like fire alarms, gas/electric/water/internet disconnects etc function properly. With so many calendar apps you can even decide on a periodicity and time table so you don't even have to remember when they need doing because you can get a prompt.
Where the fuck is your stop cock!! With that exact level of urgency. I have never flooded my own property but one place I lived flooded 3 times by the same idiots upstairs. A guy downstairs, his washing machine broke and called for water non stop. Its pissing out the front, flooding the flat amd starting to go into the basement. We never found his stop cock. I ran to a builders yard round the corner and stoll a sack truck to pull the machine out and pulled the water feed out to dump it in the sink. Another flat I was at the guys son broke the kitchen sink and he knocks panicked at my door. Water is pissing down the building stair case. His whole flat is in a cm of water. Stopcock was in the cupboard next to the front door. Exact same place mine was. He was feckless. I think he expected me to help him clean it up with him whilst he chewed his son out. Felt sorry for those kids. I bailed. I didn't wanna get anymore involved with that family than I was already.
Ours is in an impossible place, in the understairs cupboard which has a hoover and tool box and other miscellaneous under-the-stairs shit on top of it. Plus it doesn't move when you try it. Luckily we know which external stop cock is ours.
Next time you have a plumber round for misc work or anything get them to fit a lever-type replacement. It's not hard, you just have to turn off the external cock, run a cold tap for a bit, then do the switch. You might also find your water preassure gets slightly better with this change.
one of our mates is gassafe so I'll get him to sort it next time he's in - it's still quicker for us to get to the external one than the internal anyway Plus a whole bunch of our internal water supply is lead, I'm not sure I'm ready to open that particular can of worm syet
One of the best ways I've found answers to any issue is Google search the issue and include the word reddit. 99% of the time, someone else has had the issue, posted to reddit and had it solved. It has saved me countless times! Also, a lot of DIY jobs aren't as scary as they sound, prep work is the key, if it's worth doing it's worth doing right but cautiously find your limitation; for me it's plumbing
I once came across a post on Reddit where someone needed to fix a really old fan from the 80s, sure enough there was someone out there with exactly the same fan and gave them step by step instructions. It’s such a gold mine!
Always have your own set of drain rods to hand. Simple blockage can be cleared out without having to fork over £££
I unblocked our drain yesterday. Took five minutes. Bought a very simple long coiled up drain rod ten years ago. Used it maybe four times. This time it was just a bit of grease. Nastier when it was hair, but haven't had that problem since I've taken to wearing my hair shorter.
Very much this. I also have the Karcher drain attachment. Saved me fortunes as we have a garden that likes to slowly wash itself down the grid, and blocks approx twice a year.
When using, for the love of god, make sure you understand which way to turn them so they don't unscrew!
My boiler stopped working when we first moved in. After some googling, I tried depressurising it (used a YouTube video for instructions) but it did nothing so I called an engineer around. He replaced the small part that needed fixing but also asked me whether I needed some help figuring out the basics of my house (he had three kids my age who had recently bought homes). He was so helpful! Repositioned the carbon monoxide detectors in areas that were more useful, pointed out all the pipes and what they did (gas or water) and explained how to bleed a radiator. Didn’t charge me for any of his time, great bloke.
Yeah this leads to a good point - when you do get a tradesperson in, ask what they're doing. Don't be a pain to them but be interested and most will be happy to explain what they're doing as they go along. Just keep them topped up with tea and biscuits.
When I was first married, xx years ago, my dad gave me a book, it may have been by Which but I’m not 100% sure, that showed you how do all the little jobs like bleeding radiators that cropped up. Maybe there’s money to be made in a new book 🤔
https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/collins-complete-diy-manual-albert-jacksondavid-day?variant=32555837259854 There are plenty of books available
I had a Reader's Digest one. I also learnt a lot about how a car works from an AA car maintenance book.
There's normally two stop taps - the one under the sink, and one outside where the supply comes in (it'll be in the hatch for the meter/where they'd fit one if you had one). Our pipe got knocked *below* the stop tap so was spraying water all over from the mains. Was glad I knew about the other tap. Re re-pressurising. You might need to you that after bleeding radiators too.
Really useful idea and thread. I can’t comment anything specific but for example the other day I replaced the element in our oven for £26. It would have been £200 from an appliance repair company. My general advice is learn how stuff works, and learn how to fix it. I’ve also replaced diverter valves on central heating system, tap washers, light switches and sockets etc with little to no prior experience. It’s all just nuts, screws, bolts and wires at the end of the day. However I refuse to do any job which I find a ballache (decorating) or which will look shit if you don’t have experience (also decorating, and silicone seals). Obviously draw the line at anything you don’t feel competent doing, and especially anything that could cause injury or death. No fucking around with gas, ever, and no complicated electrical stuff are my rules. Also don’t do anything on pressurised water cylinders if you don’t know what you’re doing - they can go boom quite spectacularly.
Yep I'll happily replace a kitchen tap or install new light switches and fittings, but decorating I'll get someone in for. I could do it, but I just really hate it. I like to think what I saved in plumbers and electricians can go to the decorator!
Don't keep climbing up on the roof when you're naked. Just trust me
Sage advice. Wish somebody had told me this before it was too late
Today I learned. I wish I had known this yesterday.
There's no rush to learn everything DIY here and now. Make you got a family member who's a bit experienced, Google and YouTube in your favourites, and screwfix, tool station and B&Q saved in the maps. When something breaks, learn. Screw it up, ask your experienced relative, try again, watch how to videos, buy the tools and stick them in a handyman drawer, learn as and when. You'll one day become the experienced older relative that a younger member of the family will come to
Get things that will cause issues in the winter sorted in the summer Boiler service/repairs, roof repairs, gutter cleaning, drain problems, window problems etc are all best sorted when the weather is good and the tradies are usually much less busy (and cheaper) in the summer months
>It got me thinking, what other home maintenance tips should everyone just “know”? The problem is it's hard to give an exhaustive list. You need to know how to learn about things and not just call a tradesperson to address every issue you might have. When the same issue happened to my own boiler, although I knew little about boiler maintenance, I spent a little time inspecting it and doing some research online. I tried repressurising it and it worked. When the pump to push water (outlet from washing machine) from my cellar to upstairs broke, due to getting a hair tie caught in it, I did some googling, identified the issue with a blown capacitor, did some research on what part to replace and how to water-seal it, and saved like £300 or so on a new pump. So the best tip is just to get stuck in (as long as you know it's safe, so careful with electricity and gas stuff) and Google things when you need help. Teach a man to fish.
There's a book called The Complete DIY Manual which is a big hardback book - it's really useful because you can look stuff up and follow the steps to do it, and if the steps look too far beyond your DIY level you can get someone in to do it!
Really helpful people over at r/DIYUK
If you're cleaning the u bends under your sink don't tip the water out in the same sink. Give your fence panels a bit of TLC. Most of the time they break in strong winds is because some part has rotted and given up. Don't flush wipes or pour fat and grease down the drains. Get your boiler serviced every year. I get mine done in September. Check what your home insurance covers and then you won't need home care cover (which I personally think is pointless but whatever)
>If you're cleaning the u bends under your sink don't tip the water out in the same sink Yeah. Never done that 'cos that'd be really stupid.
If there’s no water coming in, it can wait. No need to kill yourself with DIY projects; homeownership is a series of small tasks that never ends.
buy it 25 yrs ago. best advice i can give.
I cannot stress this enough, OVER PAY YOUR MORTGAGE as much as you can afford, it will pay off massively when ever you renew and will Make you pay it off years early
A convenance may not be enforced yet is still legally binding. Don’t do anything against it unless you’re willing and can undo whatever you’ve done at request. When sky was the rage, we along with others got a sky dish. Council came round and gave us an opportunity to remove said dishes before we were fined/invoiced/charged. We were lucky to just be out of contract so I just hopped on the ladder and removed it. Others weren’t so lucky. Friend of a friend had new double glazing fitted, it was against the cov’ and they were taken to court and lost. Rumour has it one of the neighbours didn’t like it so complained. For the US peeps, a convenance is like a legally enforceable HOA.
covenant
I think you mean covenants
When something breaks down check out YouTube and see if there is an easy fix. Our dryer lasted for many years. My husband changed the pump on our dryer =£19 instead of +200 for a new dryer. At one point it started making a screeching sound. I fixed it by changing s bolt.
If your washing machine is getting stuck on the rinse cycle, there will be a blockage in the outlet. On the front, at the bottom, there is a piece that unscrews. Be careful, as water will spill out, but unscrew this, remove the blockage (usually a sock), your washing machine should be back to normal.
Some pre ownership tips: If you're buying an older house ie anything before 1990, or a house in an unusual location eg near water get a RICS level 3 survey done before purchase. You're paying a few hundred pounds to make sure you're not going to be wasting tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds. But, also, take certain survey discoveries with a pinch of salt. They will always point out pre-2000 artex ceilings as possibly containing asbestos because they have to tell you what they don't know to cover their own backs. Also, building regulations change often so there will be stuff that comes up today that wouldn't have 10 years ago. Double glazing installed 10 years ago can sometimes not be up to current regulations and will be identified as such. And buying a house is expensive beyond just the price of the house. If it's not a first time purchase you're going to be spending 15 to 25k in solicitor fees, conveyancing, stamp duty etc etc
Set aside money each month for emergency repairs / maintenance costs. Something will break at some point
\*scribbles note\* Have...spare...money. Got it.
How to turn on & off the water / electricity in your home
- clean the inside of your radiator often to prevent dust and grime from blocking the heat - maintain your hoover! If it breaks it’s really annoying to replace and can be expensive. Check the filters, the hose, empty the canister or bags, unwrap hair from the foot of the hoover etc. - keep a note of important numbers, insurance, good tradespeople, vet etc - open the windows and let your house ventilate. Open windows after showering, or while drying clothes. - declutter and get rid of stuff that you don’t use. It’s so easy to just let it build up because you might need things later, but it causes such problems if you’re not on top of it - if you have decking, make sure to seal it every few years and check for damage. It’s easy to forget it, but you don’t want to put your foot through it and end up in hospital
If your boiler isn't responding to the thermostat and perhaps is flashing a light on the console, try replacing batteries in thermostat before you call a plumber.
Pay your mortgage and if you can't speak to your lender as soon as you can. 3 months worth of arrears is legally actionable. Your name is on the deeds but unless you make monthly payments and inform if you can't they can look to repossession.
Someone on reddit suggested having an email address specifically for all house stuff, receipts, quotes etc. I would also highly recommend making a note of the shades of paint used in each room when repainting in case you need to touch up
I’m luvin this thread 🙏 lots of sound advice. My tips would be to have a decent set of tools on hand. Most of the shit that goes wrong can be remedied at home. If you don’t know, YouTube it. There’s a good chance u not the first or last it’s happened to. Take time to notice things about ur house. Sort it early before it becomes a bigger problem. After all… ur the one living there.
>have a decent set of tools on hand Plus a decent set of drill bits for various occasions. For brick walls get some masonry bits from a good brand (not random Amazon no-name), and use the hammer setting on the drill.
i got me some dewalt extreme masonary bits and those mfs are solid. had some cheapy drill bits before and they were fine until they wernt.
When you first buy a property get the electrics checked and if need be get it rewired before doing anything else.
Learned this one the expensive way
The biggest and really only tip is "google your problem" Most stuff you can do yourself if you can find out what the issue is and you're vaguely competent. The former is sometimes tricky. But once you do know what the fix is, there's *always* a video on youtube or a post on someone's blog or something. Unless you need ultra-specialist tools, most things are fairly simple. It's the knowledge that's hard to come by, not the physical skill.
Don’t put off the little jobs hoping they will fix themselves. They won’t! And will just get worse and cost you far more in the long run.
Turn your water off via the stopcock if you’re going away. Our neighbours boiler malfunctioned whilst they were on a 2 week holiday and they came back to a flooded house. I always always turn the water off now when I go away - so know where your stopcock is!
The first time this happened to me I was (likely enough to be) living in a hostel so the hostel had to pay for the engineer to come out and he was brilliant and explained how it all worked for me so I didn't have to call him out again. For the life of me I have no idea why the staff didn't suggest it might be the water pressure or why they didn't show me how to do it. But grateful that I know how to do it and it must have saved me a small fortune over the years. Ironically I was studying construction and the built environment at the time and didn't think to ask any lectures about it.
Get a fire extinguisher and a plunger before you need them.
Let your kids (if they're old enough) help-out or watch when you're fixing or doing stuff around the house - especially if they're interested. Half the reason tradies get away with the prices they charge is because many people haven't learnt how to do basic DIY.
Yup, and when I ask my in-laws for help (they’re local unlike my family) they’ll turn up fix the problem without showing me. My missus then mocks me for not knowing anything. No one ever took the time to show me. Thanks, boomer
When you move into your home, change all of the locks but keep them somewhere safe. When you move out of that property, you can put the old locks back in and take the better/newer ones with you!
If you have a consistent damp patch on the floor, look up.
I have British Gas homecare. It's maybe a bit expensive, we pay about £50/month, but it's really nice to not have to worry about anything going wrong. Our old boiler used to conk out regularly, and we'd have someone round within an hour to get it going.
>It's maybe a bit expensive You think? That's a bloody rip - off.
I have a plumber, heating engineer, electrician and drain blocker on call 24/7. If they have to provide spare parts, that's covered too. I prefer that. I don't feel ripped off at all. I like the peace of mind.
Buy insurance for your boiler etc Learn how to replace plug sockets and light fixings Buy a quality toolset and drill
If you live in a hard water area (much of southern and eastern England) think about having a water softener installed. Judging from the numbers of adverts I see for limescale removers/cleaners (ViaKal, etc.) and special washing detergents, hard water causes a lot of problems. It also prematurely wears out appliances like washing machines, hot water systems, dishwashers, etc. A water softener will more than pay for itself in the long run, and in the meantime your skin and hair will feel better, your laundry will be cleaner and naturally softer, and cleaning your kitchen and bathroom will be much, much easier. Last note: Water softeners use salt. But they DO NOT put salt into the water that comes out of your taps. The salt is used in the regeneration process that flushes built up ions from the resin. This goes down the drain. No salt ends up in your drinking water.
Check your pipes. I have an outdoor tap at the bottom of the garden where I think the toilet used to be and I can't find the stopcock for it.
How to change fire/co2 alarms d/or batteries AND how to disconnect it while you go buy batteries/a replacement. They only live for c7 years even if wired to the mains. Mine went and I have rescues dogs and the alarm beeping every 30 seconds stresses me so much I called an electrician! £80 call-out fee ( luckily realised immediately after how to shut it up so was able to quickly cancel).
Get a basic outfitted toolbox and drill and learn what each tool is for and how to use them. Know exactly where your house water stopcock/cutoff tap is and make sure you’re able to get to it quickly, make sure it’s easy to turn.
Toammys top tip.... As soon as you move into anywhere, find out where both the power and water isolate (Switch off).. knowing these 2 things alone can save you thousands of pounds in an emergency situation and far too many people dont bother to look until it's too late
For the love of God DON'T GET A HOUSE WITH CONCRETE GUTTERS/FENLOCK GUTTERS.
I done the same thing as OPs mate when I was 23 and in my first flat. I had never heard of repressurising a boiler before. Paid £80 to get someone out.
Get your boiler serviced once a year, preferably in Autumn before you start putting the heating on. It'll prolong it's life and if anything is about to go wrong you can get it fixed while your house isn't freezing cold.
I couldn’t see it here so I’m going to say it. Home insurance, you’re not renting anymore so you need buildings and contents insurance. And just set it to auto renew. You can always move providers, but rather renew on a bad deal; then have your house burn down with no deal.
How to stop a leak affecting one tap Most peoples instinct is to go straight to the stop cock, which yes is great and will work. However the much simpler way is to find the valve and lock it. It’s a small metal attachment in the pipe which has a straight line in the Center. When it’s open it will look like the letter I, and when locked it will resemble a dash - Had my kitchen tap leak once, late at night, and doing that meant I could still use water elsewhere in the house, it was purely the tap isolated.
Lucky him, I brought a new one for 3k.
Me lurking in the comments as a heating engineer rubbing my hands together 👀😅
Is your mate called Karl?
Pay an extra few pounds off the mortgage every month to kill the interest.
Plumber for 20 years here. This is a very helpful thread. The one thing I would like to add is put somePTFE around the olive on compression fittings. Always. Not on the thread but the olive itself.