It is very important that problems within your home are taken care of as they arise, instead of allowing them to fester. Significant or even minor repairs that need to be done to your home need to be taken care of as they stand to compound issues of aesthetics and function, and this in turn will effect the equity of your home. Although home improvement projects will add value to your home through the addition of new features or through remodeling, home repair is just as essential in ensuring the continued value of your home.

Allowing problems to remain increases the risk of damage to your house. Leaky faucets may end up causing damage to your floor’s underlay and to your basement ceilings, as well as costing you money in terms of water bills. Holes in the wall are unsightly, and are also prone to growing as well as allowing things that might rot to get into the walls of your home. Gunk that builds up on your bathroom tiles and walls is a great place for harmful molds and other singel celled organisms to breed and spread. In other words, even small problems will detract from the value and the enjoyment of your home, and they have the potential to grow into big disasters. Fixing the problem when it arises could mean that you save hundreds of dollars in potential damages to your property.

For all three of these common problems, the repair solutions are simple. Leaky faucets require whoever is doing the repairs to find the water shutoff valve before installing the faucet. After you locate this, then the rest of the project is smooth sailing.

As far as bathroom buildup, the key ingredient required is a little bit of elbow grease. If you find that the buildup still will not come up no matter how hard you scrub, you might have to think about replacing some parts of the tile. Sometimes, the buildup is so bad that it is actually necessary to install a whole new unit. Fortunately, this is made easier by the widespread availability of shower kits.

Shower kits are pretty inexpensive, but they add a lot of value to your home right away. These kits require a few tools to install, such as sealant, nails, cement, screwdrivers, cutters, primers, and piping. Gather all of the tools and the materials that were included with the shower kit together within your workspace, in a spot that is as easy to reach as possible from where you are working. Make sure that te water is turned off before commencing work!

Remember that not everyone has an innate ability to do home repair. Do not be afraid to ask a friend or family member for help, or consult one of the many do it yourself books available.

Johnathan Bakers is publishing first and foremost for http://www.kitchen-cabinets-tips.com, an online site with information about kitchen cabinet, countertops and other themes. Writing for reports on kitchen faucets the writer affirmed his capability on the topic of home improvement.

If you are a grandparent or parent of a midsize member of the next generation, you probably are being offered “help” each time you pick up a tool to begin some home repair project. We believe it requires a great quantity as well as a loving quality of patience to deal with the little helper. But if you say, “Well, thanks, I could use a little help,” you might find that you as well as the child will benefit.

If the kid is really too young to sustain any real interest, just give him/her a piece of plywood to pound on with your smallest hammer. If the little carpenter is able to swing the hammer and can understand that nothing is really being accomplished, then screw a chunk of a 2 x 4 to the plywood and start a few roofing nails in it. Roofing nails are the ones with an extra large head that is hard to miss.

Now, we hope, s/he is happily pounding the nails into the 2 x 4. But you aren’t off the hook; not by a long shot. You had better oversee it and demonstrate the speed and accuracy of the hammer swings. A six-year-old has more enthusiasm than ability, and if he tires or tries too hard, he is likely to smash a finger or worse. Explain the virtue of careful practice that allows his/her carpentry skills to develop gradually. Then remember not to leave him alone with any tools.

This quality time with your little ones needn’t take a long time. They just want to be with you and be helpful. After the practice session, they may be content to hand you nails one at a time, or count your screwdrivers, or go tell Mommy what you are going to fix.

The biggest concern with children of any age and their proximity to tools is the potential for misuse. Not only can they hurt themselves (or you, if they hand you a hammer when your back is turned,) but they can really do a number on the new pane of glass you just picked up at your local hardware store. Can you imagine the creative scratches your biggest Phillips screwdriver could put on the solid oak front door of which you are so proud? The rule developing here is that the little helpers MAY NOT TOUCH ANY TOOL until you tell them they may. If you give them full attention and play fair about letting them really help a little, they will soon accept the rules.

Let’s imagine the little darlings at nine or ten yars old. It may be time to present them on the next few Christmases and birthdays with a new tool box and a smaller-than-standard version of several common tools. You have seen those lighter weight hammers. They don’t drive a nail in as quickly as your big heavyduty hammer, but they are more easily used by smaller hands and biceps. The hammer really should be matched to the size of the nail anyway, so be sure to provide boxes of smaller sized nails. And how about those cute little locking pliers that are only inches long? You could add whatever tools seem to be needed and used. Just keep on with that patience you developed when they were five or six. They will make mistakes, but you did, too, and still do, once in a while.

But don’t make the mistake of buying too many tools all at once. It tends to overwhelm them and they really should learn the use of them one at a time. There is another great big mistake to avoid. I don’t say this just because our website, toolhill.com, sells tools. Please don’t buy cheap tools because they are “just to learn on.” The learning will be more skillful when it comes through practice with well-balanced tools of good quality and design. BUY THE BEST YOU CAN AFFORD AND INSIST THEY TAKE PROPER CARE OF THEIR TOOLS.

If you can tolerate such good help for a few years, your payoff will be a youngster who is becoming confident in his/her skills and more proficient than you realize. One spring day she will surprise you by saying, “Dad, if you remember to pick up some new spline for the screendoor, we can get that fixed tomorrow morning.” (Enjoy it while she is 12, because when she is 15, she will elect to sleep all Saturday morning.)

But remember, when she is in her own apartment after college, she will deal quite capably with many of those little problems that the other girls call Dad about. You will be so proud.

But, you are proud of all your kids and their various abilities and interests. If they don’t cherish their tools as you do and if they show little talent or interest in your home repairs, don’t beat yourself up over it. Pay close attention to their ideas, then promote one of their interests and share in those experiences, and love them for who they are.

Dr. Foltz is a retired teacher now enjoying the fascinating world of tools. Her husband Dick thrives on being so immersed in one of his favorite subjects. There are literally thousands of types and brands of tools, so she will be happily learning about tools for the rest of her life. Her mission in establishing
the toolhill.com website is to foster an increase in both knowhow and confidence in the use of tools among their women visitors and customers. In her spare time, she writes self-help books for folks wanting to write their personal and their family stories.

Richard and Sharon Foltz are writers and administrators for ToolHill.com, which specializes in the latest information about power tools and other types of tools.

Ugly, brown stains are a common feature of mobile home ceilings. They develop when roof leaks or condensation cause water to drip
onto the ceiling tiles from above.

They persist because because removal is not as simple as painting over the stain. The stain “bleeds” through paint leaving it as ugly
as before. In addition, many mobile home ceilings are made with a sprayed on acoustical texture which is VERY fragile. Painting it
with a roller or brushing on a heavy latex paint is a good way to pull off some of the texture, leaving a bare, untextured area.
Fortunately, stains are easy to cover if you have the right materials.

There is no point in doing the repair until you are sure the leak is fixed and your ceiling has dried completely! Then go to your local
paint store or home improvement center paint dept. and look for an aerosol can labeled “Stain sealing ceiling paint” or something
close to that. Two brands I know of are “Kilz” and “Zinsser”. It will be made to spray straight up and only comes in one color.
Hopefully, the color will be a good match for your ceiling tiles.

While you are shopping you may also want to buy some of the blue masking tape. It costs more than standard masking tape, but
comes off when you are done, without leaving adhesive behind or pulling anything off when it peels away.

At home, mask the area you plan to spray and put an old sheet or something on the floor. Then follow the directions on the
can to do the actual spraying. Two light coats with adequate drying time between them is better than one heavy coat.

In most cases the color of the new area will be close enough to the old that no additional topcoat is needed. The fact is,
people seldom look up. With the really obvious stain gone there will be nothing to draw the eye to what is probably a very
subtile difference in color.

The repair described here will cover water stains on ceiling tiles or wallboard anywhere, not just in mobile homes.

The Mobile Home Doctor has been providing mobile home repair information since 1999. There are more than 100 pages of advice to help mobile home owners repair their homes. Directions are written
so readers with little repair and renovation experience can be confident they can do the work themselves.