New Thing #39 - 5 Repairs Every Homeowner Should Know

Tonight I took a class through St. Louis Community College on 5 repairs that every homeowner should know. I didn't really know what to expect since there was no description in the catalog. But for a $9 registration fee, I figured it couldn't be too bad. At least I hoped it wouldn't be. My friends Sarah and Rob joined me on my trek up to North County to the Flo Valley campus.

We were running a few minutes late, so we missed the beginning of the class. No big deal though, the teacher was pretty nice. Jean has been doing home repair work for over a decade now, and she pretty much taught herself through trial and error. Her mantra seemed to be "have a good time" because she said it about 187 times throughout the night. She gave me her last handout while she continued talking. I took it and we found seats in the back of the class. For not having been in a classroom for over seven years, it felt a bit weird. I mean seriously, I never sat at the back of the class!

As we got settled in, I took a look at the "syllabus" and silently groaned. It looked completely lame and like an absolute waste of time. The five "repairs" were listed as such:
1. Locate Utility Shut-Offs
2. Re-Light the Pilot Light on Furnace and/or Hot Water Heater
3. Fix a Faucet (ironic, isn't it?!)
4. Replace Furnace Filter
5. Replace Electrical Outlets and Switches

And the class was strictly lecture with Q&A. I think I was hoping for a bit of hands-on learning, but for $9, I really shouldn't have expected that much. And I had hoped the "repairs" would be a bit more complex, but I did end up learning things I didn't really know, or ways to do things better. Plus, some of the people in our class were so adorably clueless, it was entertaining to listen to them.

We missed the "locate utility shut-off" portion, but I really wasn't too concerned with that. I mean, I found the kitchen sink shut-offs just fine. Next, she was on to relighting the hot water heater. I had a pretty decent idea of how to do this, although I've never really had to do it myself. It was nice to have a step by step list to follow though, should I ever need it. If you don't know how to do it, I will be glad to enlighten you. Because that's what I do. I share my newfound knowledge with the world. :)

Jean had some nifty drawings on the chalkboard, that I unfortunately didn't have my camera to photograph. First, take the door off the front panel of the hot water heater. Turn the knob to Pilot and press the red button down to get the gas to come out. Insert your match, or fire method of choice, and slowly let out the red button. Turn the knob to On and be prepared to soil yourself. Jean explained how the flames will ignite the burners with a large whoosh, but they won't actually burn you. I know she's telling the truth, but that part always freaks me out. And some of the more mature women in the class seemed a bit nervous about that part too. Hence Jean's warning of being prepared for that part. None of this was that new to me, but the next information was.

Jean gave us a good way to keep up the maintenance for our hot water heaters by adding years to its life. I had never heard of this. She said that all water has minerals in it, regardless of how filtered it is. So, to clear out these minerals from the heater, she said to locate a faucet at the bottom of the heater. Get an old hose and hook it up to the faucet and drain about a gallon of water into a bucket. I should mention that you should do this about a half hour after the heater finishes cycling, in order to let all the minerals and gunk filter to the bottom of the tank. Once you have your gallon of water, take a look inside the bucket and see how much crap you have floating around in there. Yummy. If there is a lot, you should do this once a week for a month, then monthly, then quarterly. It will help keep the calcium and other deposits from hardening inside your tank and decreasing its overall volume. Now, this seems like a pretty simple process right? Hook up hose to faucet. Drain into bucket. Turn on faucet til you get a gallon of water. Turn off faucet. This lady in our class had to ask more than once how to do it. She seemed completely clueless on this procedure, so we were enlightened with the knowledge more than once. Finally, after I think she understood, Jean explained how to find out if you have a good water heater. If it is a 40 gallon tank, you should fill up your bathtub with 5" of straight hot water. If you don't make it to 5" before it starts to come out cooler, than your heater isn't as good as you think it is. See, these things I didn't know!

Next, she moved on to fixing a leaky faucet. This I was most interested in learning about. It may be a few weeks late, but maybe I could learn something I hadn't already figured out in my own experience. She started by explaining how to repair a faucet with double handles. If it's dripping from the faucet or from the handles, it can be fixed. My ass it can. Her next explanation was nearly identical to all the YouTube videos I watched in preparation for my own faucet fixing fiasco. And she basically said the same thing about how most times it's just a worn washer than needs replacing. So, I raised my hands and asked her what to do if there is no actual washer in the mechanism at all. She said it was probably an old faucet and that each individual mechanism would need to be replaced then. Of course. So, it looks like replacing my entire faucet was the best way to go.

She then explained how to fix single handle faucets, and I took lots of notes in case my new faucet ever decides to piss me off and start leaking. At least if that happens, I will be a bit more prepared. When it was time for questions again, this one guy said "you have to turn the water off before doing this, right?" Seriously, did he just ask that? She was pretty patient and explained that yes, you must turn the water off before fixing your faucet, unless you want in indoor water slide (my words, not hers). She's a better person than I. Because I know there is no way I could have kept myself from making some kind of sarcastic remark. This is probably why I don't teach.

She finished the faucet lecture on how to fix shower/tub fixtures. And she had to explain to someone what "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" was. I really shouldn't make fun of people, but it's hard not to be shocked when someone doesn't understand the phrase on how to tighten or untighten pretty much everything in the world. How do you make it in life without ever hearing that phrase?!

Furnace filters were next, most of which was common sense. Well, at least common sense for the three of us. Other people, not so much. When Jean explained about the arrow on the side of the filter and how it designated the air flow, I thought she would be able to move on fairly quickly. Nope. This seemed to confuse a number of people. Air flow? Arrows? That's just crazy talk.

The one guy who asked about the water shut off asked about duct cleaning and how he got the shaft by using one of those companies who advertises $15 per vent to clean them. He said it cost him nearly $1000 to get his ductwork cleaned...uh, do you live in a hotel buddy? That's over 60 vents! I have 9. Sarah set him straight by telling him she had Stanley Steamer come and clean the vents in their house for $150. I think he felt a bit stupid at that point.

Next we moved on to electrical outlets. I was excited for this because the prospect of electrical work freaks me out. Unfortunately, we didn't really learn much on "fixing" them. She told us that there are 2 types of wire, aluminum and copper, and older houses probably have aluminum. There are specific outlets for aluminum or copper wiring and they are marked by AL and CU notations. The same lady who asked about the hot water heater and the right-tighty, poked her hand in the air and said, "AL is for aluminum?" Oh good lord.

She wrapped up the electrical outlet lecture and opened up the class for questions. Many people asked her if she taught other classes, and Jean explained that yes, she does teach a few other classes. Aluminum lady asked if she could show us how to use a drill and drill bit....I'd just like to thank my dad and my brother for showing me power tools early in life so I don't ask questions like that.

Overall, the class wasn't a total bust, I did learn a few things I didn't know and feel a bit more comfortable being able to tackle home projects. I'd definitely say it was a $9 class though. Hopefully, I can find a bit more hands-on class to take in the future, because I learn best by doing. Thanks to Sarah and Rob for going with me too. Hopefully, they weren't too bored by it!