Top 5 DIY Home Skills you should Know!

Straight from Green Tree Realty, here are 5 skills you HOPEFULLY have (or can learn!) when owning a home!

When you live in a house, you don’t have the comfort of knowing that the property manager will help take care of any repairs you need. But sometimes it’s nice to not have to call someone for help and then wait for the handyman to arrive. If you want to feel fairly self-sufficient as a homeowner in Maine, it’s time to make sure you know these basic home skills.

1. Patch a hole in the wall

Over time, the walls of your home can acquire scratches, nicks, and even holes. It’s important to learn how to patch these, especially if you want your deposit back. Luckily, there are kits you can buy at home improvement stores that should make this process easy, but you need to feel confident that you can apply the patch and the drywall compound over any holes.

2. Unclog a sink

This DIY skill will come in handy when your sink stops draining properly. There are a few ways to help a sink drain better, from plunging it to sticking a tool called a snake into the drain. It’s nice to be able to determine when you should use either of these skills, and then get the job done without calling the property manager and then waiting for a professional repair.

3. Fix a leaky faucet

This is another common sink problem you might have in your Southern Maine home. The good news is that it’s easy to fix, as long as you have a few DIY skills. In most cases, the faucet is leaking because it needs a new washer, which you can buy from any home improvement store. You just need to know how to take the faucet and handle combination apart and then put it back together with the new washer.

4. Unclog a toilet

Most people will have to deal with a clogged toilet at some point. If you want to avoid being without a toilet for days while you wait for a professional to come repair it, you should know how to unclog it. Similar to unclogging a sink, this will require you to know how to properly use a plunger and possibly a plumbing snake. If neither of these tools works, you’ll probably need to call a plumber, but at least you’ve narrowed down the problem.

5. Hang heavy wall décor

If you want to avoid putting holes in your walls that you’ll just have to patch later, you should learn to hang up heavy pictures. You can buy tools for this at the store, but you have to know how and when to use them on your walls. Otherwise, decorating your house will be difficult. Learning this DIY skill will help you get your Southern Maine home looking the way you want, so it’s a good idea to learn it.

Thanks to Veronica Schneider, for this article!