Readers Digest: 1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints & Tips: Tricks, Shortcuts, How-Tos, and Other Great Ideas for Inside, Outside, and All Around Your House

By Reader's Digest Association

Book Overview

Now you can work like a pro - and accomplish all your maintenance, repair, and decorating projects more easily, at less cost, and with better results than ever before. Illustrated with 800 full-color photographs and hundreds of clear instructional illustrations, 1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints & Tips takes you through every task you'll ever face as a homeowner, presenting handy hints and savvy shortcuts gathered from a host of experts and tested by people in their own homes, yards, and workshops.

1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints & Tips covers the basics of keeping the household in safe, working order inside and outside. There are tips on repairing damaged tile, plaster, and wallboard; cleaning a water heater; silencing squeaky stairs and floors; patching the roof; installing gutters and fixing gutters that leak; replacing wood clapboard and repairing timeworn vinyl or aluminum siding; and weatherproofing drafty doors and windows. Step-by-step directions show you how to eliminate dangerous or frustrating problems with appliances and fixtures - including how to rewire a table lamp; test and replace parts in ovens and ranges; snake a drain; install a new sink trap; level a wobbly washing machine; and even add RAM memory to your computer.

1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints & Tips is also packed with suggestions for improving the look of your home. The easy-to-follow instruction for painting and wallpapering are just the start. You'll also discover how to bring order to kitchens, closets, workshops, and storage spaces; strip and refinish furniture; reupholster, recane, or rewicker chairs; install wainscoting; and replace a ceiling fixture or put in track lighting. Ideas for spiffing up your yard and garden range from information on preparing and seeding garden beds to the best way to sharpen the blades on your lawn mower, to inexpensive methods for removing oil stains from garage floors and driveways. Home security is also covered with essential how-tos on installing home alarms, dead-bolt locks, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Every project features a complete list of tools and materials, an estimated "degree of difficulty," and time-and-money-saving tricks of the trade - like how to shrink dowels down to size, keep the tools you're using on the shelf of a ladder, drive nails without splitting the surface, and much, much more.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1464303355
• ISBN13: 9781464303357
• Release Date: January 2013
• Publisher: World Publications Group, Incorporated
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.5" x 1.0" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book that covers many topics

This book covers just about every situation that the average homeowner would run into. It's well laid out, making it easy to navigate. While some things are a bit advanced (like the roof and chimney repairs), most topics are pretty easy to understand if you don't have much experience.

This book is amazing.

I have not bought this book...yet. I recently borrowed it from the library, and will keep renewing it until they force me to return it. When they do, I intend on hunting it down at my neighborhood bookstore. This book is very comprehensive for the do-it-yourselfer that is just starting out, and contains many neat tips and tricks that even the expert handyman would not have known. The book is extremely useful for everyday stuff, and even has instructions on those once a year fix-it items. The book is arranged in different categories, such as Lawn & Garden, Plumbing, Electrical Appliances, with subcategories like pruning, toilets, and washer/dryer. About half of each page is covered with colorful handrawn pictures that apply to the tips listed. Most tips don't have pictures, but these are usually ones that don't require them. The other half of the page contains detailed instructions on how to replace/repair/install items of importance. These instructions have real pictures of the process, and are wonderful for reference. I would recommend this book to anyone who owns a home. Once you buy it, read everything once so you'll know what's in there, then put it in an accessible place so you can grab it at a moments notice.

Excellent source of clever ideas and tips

While not a comprehensive home repair guide (superficial instructions and difficult to see and poorly labeled photos and diagrams), this book is a useful addition to a home repair library. When tackling a home repair, the book provides numerious time-saving and result enhancing suggestions on how to make the job go more smooothly with a higher quality outcome.

Excellent source of clever ideas and tips

While not a comprehensive home repair guide (superficial instructions and difficult to see and poorly labeled photos and diagrams), this book is a useful addition to home repair libraries. When tackling a home repair, the book provides numerious time-saving and result enhancing suggestions on how to maket the job go more smooothly with a higher quality outcome.

A must for every home owner!!

As a single parent and homeowner, I can't tell you how handy this book has been. If you don't have a friend, relative or spouse who's a handyman, you definitely need this book. I've been able to save enough money to furnish my home. I've purchased many of the Reader's Digest books in the past and found them to be of high quality and excellent value. This book contains step-by-step procedures and instructions that are depicted in numbered color photos that makes easy work of repairs and maintenance-plus you are assured it's done right.