Best Home Repair Book

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Every home owner should be comfortable handling routine maintenance and home repairs around their house. You’ll want to learn the basics about your home systems like how to turn the water off if there’s a leak, or how to reset the breaker (in older homes, replace a fuse) in the electrical box. Once you get comfortable with these systems, you’ll learn which repairs you can handle yourself and when it’s time to call a professional.

If you didn’t grow up learning how to do home repairs (most of us didn’t), then you need a good reference book to help you find the information necessary to handle these basic tasks yourself. My favorite home repair book, which I relied on after starting my handyman business is …

Ultimate Guide to Home Repair & Improvement*

Let me tell you what I love about this home repair book:

• Starts with safety basics … and you don’t want to skip these.
• Reviews tools you’ll need, both hand tools and basic power tools.
• Using roofing as a sample chapter:
  • Great diagrams like “Anatomy of a Roof” that are easy to read, i.e. they show the multiple layers of the roof from the rafters that give the roof it’s shape, to the plywood sheathing that sits on top of the rafters, the water barrier, flashing and shingles.
  • Introduction to specialty tools for roofing repairs.
  • Overview of different roof types and key concepts related to them, i.e. flat roofs are handled very differently than other styles.
  • Common repairs for each type of roofing material, i.e. shingles, slate, clay tiles, wood shingles and metal roofing.
  • Other features that affect the performance of a roof from flashing, to skylights, vents, gutters , ventilation and weather related problems.

*The Ultimate Guide to Home Repair and Improvement comes from Creative Homeowner, ISBN-10: 1-58011-316-8 or ISBN-13: 978-1-58011-316-8.

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