Ep 15: To Fix or Not to Fix | When to DIY vs. Replace 6 Common Home Repairs
Welcome to How to Handyma'am, the podcast where we consult Shakespeare about your home repairs! In today's episode, we are dedicating our time to Arly's namesake: Grandma Arlene, who perfectly embodies the OG Handyma'am spirit.
We are also trying out a brand new segment called "3 Minutes of Chaos" to keep us on track. We get a little sidetracked talking about Emily's missing DoorDash tater tots and the beauty of Michigan spring, but we quickly pivot back to the real reason you're here: deciding when it's worth it to fix a broken item in your home versus when you should just replace it entirely.
Here is our contractor-approved guide on when to fix it and when to throw it out!
1. Ripped Linoleum (Sheet Vinyl)
The Verdict: Replace it (mostly).
If you have a completely clean tear in your linoleum, you might be able to glue it back down and seamlessly blend it.
However, most "rips" happen when an appliance (like a refrigerator) gets dragged across the floor, stretching and permanently scratching the vinyl into a weird accordion shape. In this case, you cannot fix it.
Luckily, sheet vinyl is incredibly affordable (often around $0.70 a square foot). If the rip is in a small space like a bathroom, it's easiest to just rip up the whole piece and lay down a new one for around $30.
2. A Hole in a Hollow Core Door
The Verdict: Replace it (unless you are renting).
Hollow core doors are very reasonably priced. If a teenager or a dog puts a huge hole in one, it is usually faster and easier to just buy a new door.
The Caveat: If you are a renter trying to save your security deposit, you can fix a painted hollow core door. You have to fill the hole with a structural wood filler (like Bondo), sand it completely smooth, and paint over it. It is a laborious process, but it works! (Note: You cannot fix a hollow core door that has a faux wood-stain veneer.)
3. A Broken or Leaking Faucet
The Verdict: Replace it.
If you are having water pressure issues or the water is spraying sideways, you likely just have a clogged aerator. Unscrew the tip of the faucet and soak it in white vinegar to dissolve the built-up rust or minerals.
However, if the handle is leaking, the internal mixing cartridge has gone bad. If the faucet handle is physically broken or the metal finish is flaking off, do not waste your time trying to fix it.
A standard bathroom faucet is around $50. If you can do the labor yourself, it is 100% cheaper to just buy and install a new faucet than to buy replacement parts or hire a plumber to fix the old one!
4. A Broken Window Pane
The Verdict: Fix it!
You do not have to replace the entire window just because the glass broke. Replacing an entire window is incredibly disruptive to your house—you have to rip off the exterior trim, aluminum flashing, and interior insulation, and then rebuild everything once the new window is in.
Both single-pane and double-pane glass can be replaced without taking the sash out of the wall. Many local hardware stores will cut a replacement piece of glass to size for you!
5. A Broken Plumbing Pipe
The Verdict: Replace it.
If you have a broken drain pipe holding water, 100% of the time, it needs to be replaced. Do not let a plumber try to "fix" a crack with plumber's putty!
The only exception is a "vent stack," which is the PVC pipe that vents plumbing gases out through your roof. Because it only holds air, you can safely tape over a small hairline fracture on a vent pipe.
6. A Broken Door Jamb
The Verdict: Fix it (unless it's an exterior door).
If a locked interior bedroom door gets kicked open by an angry sibling, the wooden door jamb will splinter. You can usually push the wood back together, glue it, clamp it, and sand it smooth once dry.
However, if an exterior door jamb is broken, it must be replaced. Your deadbolt locks into that jamb, and if the wood is compromised, your house is no longer secure.
Handyma'am Product Shoutouts!
If you are looking for our favorite contractor-approved products this week, here are the ones we can't stop talking about:
RTA Wholesalers: "Ready to Assemble" kitchen and bathroom vanity cabinets. They have incredible craftsmanship, ship quickly, and are easier to put together than IKEA furniture!
Schluter Systems Epoxy Grout: This two-part epoxy comes in a caulk tube, has very low odor, and makes for incredibly durable, stain-proof tile lines.
Gorilla Glue 2-Part Epoxy: The absolute best heavy-duty adhesive for fixing everything from broken statues to eyeglasses.
Valspar Signature Paint (Lowe's): A fantastic, budget-friendly mid-tier paint with great coverage for DIYers.
Got questions about your own DIY projects? Send us an email at hthm@myhandymaam.com!
Episode Transcript:
Welcome to How to Handyman, the podcast where we consult Shakespeare about your home repairs In today's episode we are going to talk about our favorite products which we have tried them all out for you and we're going to tell you which ones are super awesome and we're going to talk about to fix or not to fix that is the question I'm. Samantha, I'm Emily and I'm Arlene and this is how to handyman and I am dedicating this episode to Arlene. No, I'm just kidding. It's not myself. I was named after a woman named Arlene. She's my grandmother and she's amazing. She had six kids and then they all got married and then she had 500 grandkids and she is. I mean, she's just as cute as me, if you can believe it. And she's can't. Believe it. Kind and amazing and she's just, she's great and also like thank you for the DNA and thank you for the name. I appreciate it. We love you and thank you for always supporting me. Every time I send her pictures, she says. I'm so surprised by how talented you are and. You never cease to amaze. Me and so it's she's wonderful. Classic OG handyman she is. She is in. Her own way, yeah. And she also has been married to my grandfather for 63 years, which is just like a feat at its own, to be like, to spend so much of your life with another. They met in kindergarten, right? They met in kindergarten. They got married after high school. And classic love story. So they're still together, going strong. And yeah, love you Grandma. Yeah, we love you too, even though we haven't met you. She's like me, but thanks. For making Harley, yeah. So sometimes we fall in love with a product so much that it becomes a side relationship for us. Yeah, this is pretty intense. Like a side chick or something. Yeah, product version. No, this is our main trick for this. That's true. Oh my gosh. So there is this awesome human being named Rich Hopkins who owns a company called RTA Wholesalers and RTA stands for Ready to Assemble and they make cabinets now. Well, I will tell you there are loads of Ready to Assemble cabinets that you can buy, especially online. And RTA is a very common term, so I want to be very specific. RTA wholesalers is their name. This is. Sponsored by the way. We just, we just love. Yeah. I wanted to point out, Oh my gosh, I had looked up the city. I want to make sure you know it's in. California. It's in California, I want to make sure you get the right one. So, but their website is RTA wholesalers dot com. You'll know you're at the right place, so. I look up the city. I. I really wanted to call out this company as really special. They make ready to assemble cabinets that will come to you. They are the most beautiful things you have ever seen. The craftsmanship is outstanding. You sit you can buy them at a reasonable price because they come to you not assembled. So one thing you might not know is that shipping assembled items is incredibly expensive. So it's not just, it's not like, oh, they're low quality is why they're less money. It's because you assemble them. So the shipping of that item is so much less than it would be shipping. I mean, if you've seen one cabinet has a giant box. So these will come to you unassembled. The assembly Arly can attest to is Carson, CA. Carson, CA. Yeah, That's the right company you'll know you have. They are very easy to assemble. They are all assembled the exact same way. They send you everything that you need. Nothing is ever missing except for maybe once in a blue moon. And if it's missing, they will ship it to you overnight. No, I honestly, that was what impressed me about the company. Not just the quality, but I was like, hey, something's missing. They made it right. Yeah, they had it there the next day. It was awesome. So I love these in which I liked them because they were the first cabinets that I had ever assembled myself when I started working here. And then the thing that made me fall in love with this company specifically is after I had assembled run-of-the-mill ready to assemble cabinets and it was like the pieces weren't great quality. They weren't like real wood front doors. They were like, it was not the best quality. They didn't come with any instructions. They didn't have any resources. The customer service was terrible. Missing a lot of pieces or they came broke. Pieces or they weren't labeled and so you just had to like kind of figure it out. We had a. Cabinet assembly job recently where multiple things were broken. This was that. Job and it took a long time for it to come. So there are there are maybe like 10 things that rich thought or like the top things to tell people about it. But I I wrote down the top five that I think are really important. The website lists the prices so it is easy to know how much the cabinet you're going. To buy, you just add them to the cart. It's going to be. It's really nice. They the cabinets that they carry are a superior quality and they have lots of in in stock ones, but you can also order custom if you need. I didn't know that. I. Didn't. Either yeah, there are. So if you have like a weird like I have 7 1/2 inches left and I really want to fill it all, you can order. Customers, Oh my gosh. And we have built our own cabinets before and it kind of. Sucks. Not a lot. The third thing is that they come in white and also other desirable colors. And I will tell you. So you can buy wood cabinets like at the box stores, but Home Depot is the only one that carries a finished wood cabinet. The other ones come unfinished. Yeah, and staining is difficult. You can order finished cabinets from RTA Wholesalers and we are in the with the white. We've put it in two bathrooms now as vanities and they're just, they're stunning. I want to do another one with them. Yeah. So I guess those are the most important things. I just wanted to say they have awesome customer service. They have a beautiful product. They're very easy to order, very easy to deal with. So that was my like fangirling over my favorite product. So I wanted. To ask the interview on that before we do that. So I just want to say, although this wasn't sponsored, it's really important to us that even though products aren't sponsored, that we share our favorite products with you all because we have been through so many. And you can, it can get really in a world of sponsored ads. And hopefully eventually we do have sponsors and we'll pick sponsors who we actually believe in. But in a world of sponsored ads, I'm not going to name the cabinet company, but the cabinet company that was bad. It has rave reviews on their website and has great sponsored content online. So when our client told. Us they're using by sponsor we mean paid for. Yeah, they paid for that. Yeah, I was like, oh, like I've heard great things about them. It was fake good things about them. So it's really important for us, especially as you guys are dipping your toes into this world that we recommend products. So we are, we are going to say stuff's not. That women can trust, Yes. And we, we love these products. And I feel like if you can assemble IKEA furniture, you can put these cabinets. Together 100%. So yeah, these are great. This is a better quality than IKEA. RTA Wholesalers, the cabinet company that women can trust, Yeah. Love it. Yes, yes, do it. Aren't they a small business too? They are so support small. Business name, the owner who also answers the phone and his e-mail. When I emailed him, I said hey, we're going to tell people about you. What do you want him to know the most? That's awesome. I love some people. Some people. Are there some products? Each of you pick one product you're in love with. I think I'm newly in love with this epoxy grout that I just tried. Oh, it looks so good. That was fantastic. Just tried it and I think like honestly my favorite part about it was that when I ordered it, it comes with a caulk gun because the epoxy thing, it's it's basically 2 tubes of caulk that have been fused together. And when you push on the back of the caulk gun it has like the two, it's like 2 222 guns. Merge into one. It it squeezes out the A and the B, the parts the two-part epoxy, so you have perfectly equal amount. But the cock gun that came with it is purple, which I love. Purple, and it's like a purple you like. Yeah. And so I was kind of excited about. That not why you love the product, No, but that was just a bonus. One of the things that I really liked about it is it had a very low smell. Oh yeah, I've used a lot. Shocked. Yeah, I've used a lot of different. Products have a very. Strong, very like bonded 1. This one was. Great, you need to specifically tell them the use for this product. Yes. So basically in large format tiles you can use instead of grout, you use an epoxy and it joins the seams and then it has like a little bit more durability and hardness so it doesn't crack, it lasts longer and then it also isn't porous so it makes it like it doesn't get stained. It's a lot easier to clean all the all that kind of stuff. But also it's great for outside corners if you are mitering 2 pieces of tile to make it look like this wall is tiled and this wall is tiled. And in my case, I made one piece of tile look like it was a kind of a thick piece of of marble I guess. So it had a front cutie. Shelves. Yeah, it had a top of front and then a bottom and it it wrapped around. So I had a top corner and A and a bottom corner. And I think, well, we can post some of those pictures. And so I coded the corners in this grout, epoxy grout. So it was really durable and also it hides that seam. And it's not sharp then? Yes, and you can shape it exactly how you want it. And it took me a second to get used to it, but I really liked it. So good experience with that and I. Definitely a product a homeowner would not stumble upon on an accident. I, I mean, I've been looking into tile for a while, like watching like professionals do that stuff because like I mean IA lot of the skills I learned I have taught myself. Or taught from another person that you are a professional tile. Well, I, I don't do like $1,000,000 homes and I haven't been taught by like. You didn't go to. Tile school. Yeah, yeah, anything but. She went to Sluter School. Yeah, I went to Sluter School, but anything that I've learned from another person is usually a person who has also taught themselves. So I've been like out there on the Internet scouring for different information and stuff. And it took me, I mean, like a year and a half to find that. And it's kind of a game changer. I'm pretty excited about about using it more and seeing what more I can do with it. And that would work for a solid surface countertops that get chips and stuff in them. I do. I mean, I think so. Definitely it's a temporary. Yeah, No, I think it could be permanent, Yeah. I mean, they use two-part epoxies to to permanently fix that kind of stuff in general, it just seems like. Easier than mixing it for a DI wire because you definitely you just. Squirt it out, yeah, and. The great thing about epoxy is that when it's two parts like that you can it has a very long shelf life because it doesn't dry or do anything when it's in the right correct. The chemical temperature. Yeah, it doesn't do anything until you do that mixing, so. I know you've been out of the field for a while, M, but you, I know you used to have some favorite products. Do you have one you want to talk about? I have one that I think is just applicable for homeowners in general, The Gorilla Glue two-part epoxy glue. I do love that stuff. So I will make a semi Long story short. My dad is so lovely and he visits people He's a pastor so he visits people in their homes to bring them convenient also to just like love on them their shut insurance. He wants to make sure if they're to have contact with the outside world, so he has someone who had this. It's like a fairy statue. I remember, yeah. What? It broke off? It had butterfly wings. Yeah. And we tried, I don't know, like 6 products. So my mom was so frustrated trying to figure this out. And I'm the A-Team team that you call in when stuff, when you're like, I can't figure this out, I'm frustrated and I need a more on it. And then I find that you're the Coast Guard. Yeah, that fixes it. And so I used this because I had guys, I had tried a lot of stuff I had tried, we had tried construction adhesive, which just turned into this sticky, disgusting mess. We tried normal super glue. I tried because it was like composite material. It wasn't cement. I tried melting it back together. It just set on fire, which that was scary. And then I put it out quickly, but it was slow burning. And then I had to paint that area because it was black, but, and I also tried melting, seeing like nails into it and then like, Oh yeah, to like brace it back together. None of those worked. Every time I'd be like, it worked and then I'd look at it and the wing would just fall off and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is going to be the death of me. So I tried this Gorilla Glue product. Once again, none of this is sponsored even though we we would be great for sponsoring this, but it glued it back on instantly and it's so strong like cuz I was like, I don't believe this. So I kind of like shook it around a little cuz I was like, I'm not returning this to an 80 something year old one. It's going to fall off. Yeah, it worked perfectly. And now we use that at a lot of client sites. It just. It's the same epoxy that they use to under mount sinks. Yes. So that's, so I will say real quick that there there are lots of kinds of adhesives and there is a correct adhesive for nearly every application there is. There might be more than one that works, but there is the most correct adhesive. And if you just go to our How to Handyman group, we will tell you which one it is. Yeah, I've actually repaired glasses with this epoxy adhesive and. I just really and then adhesive that because it is 2 part it has less to do with oxygen. So like things that have to dry like wood glue or some super glues, those need, yeah, those need air. And like, I guess ventilation isn't the right word, but it needs to be exposed to air in order to dry. It's the method of it drying is evaporation. And the other part, the other like the two parts and some some other ones are, it's the chemical reaction that happens. So whether it is exposed to air or not, it will cure which means that if you're putting 2 pieces of plastic together and it's sealed, the the center of that thing is still going to dry even though it doesn't have it'll maybe take longer than the stuff that is on the outer edges, but it still will dry. Which is I mean there's a lot of products like that like all set by Schluter. Same reason why you use that instead of like a pre mixed is because it. Will dry. So yeah, I really just I I like it. I think it's kind of like it's pretty easy to use. I think it's easier than like Bondo and stuff to use. Yeah, yeah, because. You get the ratio right, it just comes out of the. Team correct. Yeah, it does hate super glue. I don't know why it like when I I think I yeah, I don't know what's wrong with me. I always also glue my fingers together and then I have one thing. We talk about Sherwin-Williams a lot and we do love Sherwin-Williams. I'm pretty sure they also own this brand. But. Valspar paint from Lowe's. We really like it. I've. Seen some? I like their primer a lot. Yeah, I like they have a bonding primer, which is my favorite and it's nice and thick. So it's like we we've talked about shellac on the show before. It's super runny, It's hard. This is a bonding primer. It claims it can bond to glass. I'm not quite sure about that. We should do a. Test. Yeah, we. Can do a test. Yeah, but they also have a Valspar signature line, which isn't the bottom, yeah. There are multiple Valspar levels. It's specifically the signature line. It's a. Great mid tier. It's, I wouldn't say it's like cheap, but it's like relatively affordable. Like especially like my sister just bought a house so she's like bought $1000 a gallon. She's not. Going to spend $100 a gallon. Yeah. So it's a great beginner level. I will say 1 tricky thing was it with it is once it's half dry, do not touch that it's coming back off the wall, which most paint does. But yeah, I just wanted to share that like we talked about Sherwin-Williams, we have kind we started with Valspar and since we've become pros, we've upgraded to like the pro level Sherwin-Williams. But if you're just using it for your house, it's great. It comes in any color you need. Be in an area that has a Lowe's and not a Sherwin-Williams. Yeah, and I say it is owned by Sherwin-Williams cuz they they own and they have a line that we like the cabinet paint cabinet. Yeah, Sherman cabinet paint of that's HGTV by Sherwin-Williams. That's the brown one. Yeah, that's the one. Stuff, yeah, I like that stuff. It applies really nicely it. Isn't as good as Emerald paint at Sherwin-Williams, but it is a great homeowner alternative. It is a great homeowner because that thing's like 40 bucks and like emerald and emerald urethane are creme de la creme of beautifulness beyond like before you go to oil based paint, but they could be. 70 to $80 a gallon. They're they're $90.00 without a discount. I think they're like $98 without a discount, yeah. So I just want to encourage and a lot of people like Benjamin Moore and Bear and we are not those people. We just don't use it very much. So I would get recommendations elsewhere for those. But either Sherwin-Williams or Lowe's, you can find great options. And I just want to encourage you like when we sometimes talk about the more expensive stuff. If you're like, I can't afford $90.00 a gallon, which personally I probably couldn't either, but just ask us and we're happy to share Like more budget alternatives that might not perform if your dog scrapes its nails down the wall, but we'll do pretty well for. Normal because like we've used some cheap stuff in our own homes that we're not going to use in customers home because they're paying us to do something like it like that will last about a very long time. But sometimes in your own home, we're like, well, you got to do the best we can. Yeah. And so we know some cheaper brands too. Well, like with my cabinets at my house, I was like, I just don't want to look at these ugly cabinets anymore. I'm painting them. I didn't prime them, which I wouldn't do in a client's house, but it's worked out fine. My cabinets look great. So there are some things that like you might do in your own home and it might pay off. It might. You might end up having. To I mean, the next thing is you live there. So if you have some problems with it, you're right there to fix it, which is different than what we do for customers. Like we want to leave and not get called back because they're unhappy. We don't want that to happen. But you can try some things in your own home. It's fine if you have to fix it. Yeah. And we understand ball in our budget. Yes, we do. OK, so I know you're going to be shocked that we're remarkably on topic, but we are going to take a quick pee break and then we're going to come back because Arlee had something. For us, something for us and weird off topic. I know. This one Hold on, we will sing this episode. I'm going to go to the bathroom. All right, well, we're back again. We are back. Again from the pee break, yes. From the pee break and the multiple times that we tried to record this intro. This is version 4. Yeah, again, I think. We went down a long road that y'all will never know. Yeah, just. And then the Choker's real for our 10th anniversary. Yeah, you'll have to charge big money. Yeah, it's just me, like. Coughing that you sounded like an Amazon truck when it backs up. Oh, yeah, All right. What is it today? Pepsi it is. To fix or not to fix that is the question. I feel like you should be like holding a skull. I think sometimes in Shakespeare like they just. Love I have this candle. To fix or not to fix or not to fix? You can't sound like Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. Oh, you do. I do Call us. Oldest. Our guest BI. Can't know what you're going at. If I can, I was like B. Oh God. Anyways, anyways. We stayed so on topic on the first part and then this is just like it catches up to us eventually. That's true, the silly use juice is running through rings. All right, so OK, to fix or not to fix that is the question. Let us start. So I'm going to give them a problem and then we're going to talk about whether it's worth spending the time and or money to invest in fixing that problem or if it's better just to dispose of that product or something and then buy a new version of it and install new stuff. I would like to do a disclaimer that if you are very conscious of what you dispose of like you very much not that other people don't care about the environment, but sometimes the higher cost to fixing it might be worth it to you to not create waste. But for some of these and some if it is more expensive to fix it than they get. So I just want to make. This so we'll take we'll set aside the environmental aspect, an ecological footprint for a hot 2nd and talk about from a time and money standpoint. Yeah, so let's start off with fixing or replacing ripped linoleum. I I think in general you can fix it, but the ripped word is what gets me because you can do a RIP where you get like a clean RIP and you can glue it back down and then you get it really blends back in. But there are some rips, like for example, if you pull your refrigerator across the kitchen floor, what you actually get? Is how we know. Yeah, yeah. You get. Like I don't even know how to describe it. It's like when you take a piece of paper and you rub an eraser on it and then it like folds up into like an accordion. It scratches the floor, so it's just that one layer doesn't. Yes. So if you get that, it's really not easy to fix. But in Jeff and care. You should fix that area or replace that area or replace all of the floor. If you can get the same flooring, have the same flooring, and in any way can blend it in, I would say fix it. I agree. I'd say or like say you have it running throughout a few rooms cuz sometimes it can be like a seamless transition. If you can't find the exact where you had, you could just pick one similar for that room and do a transition strip. Yeah, I have a couple of thoughts here. So there's a couple different kinds of linoleum. So there's, there's different grades, like there's like more commercial grades that are like harder. So they don't. The generic term is sheet vinyl, yes. Yeah. Linoleum is like my grandma's sheet vinyl. Yeah, anyway. And then there's more of like the consumer level, like stuff you get at Menards or Lowe's or Home Depot a little bit. They they have a lot of options for like, I don't know, like 70 like since a square foot. It's. Very reasonable, yeah. And that stuff has a little bit more sponginess to it and over time it kind of hardens a little bit. But the newer stuff is definitely like softer. And this feels like a play mat or like an. Exercise mat yeah, it does. So if there's there's a couple different kinds, if you have a really expensive kind, you might not want to invest in that. If you have a very cheap kind, you know, or if it's a very small area, like if it's your bathroom and your bathroom is like 2 feet by 4 feet, like replacing A1 foot area is going to be like less. Sorry, someone's getting a. Difficult to replace the whole thing. Then it would be just that little area, yeah. That's a good point. Anyway, and then there's a couple different ways that people install flooring and I feel like that's really important when it comes to replacing or not replacing. So the way I like to install sheet vinyl is I mostly just do it in bathrooms is where I had the most experience. And I do not like to use any type of adhesive because I feel like bathrooms are the area where your linoleum is a direct indicator whether you have any water damage underneath the floor. And if you do, it's going to affect that. And then I don't like to put glue down because then you can just take it up. It makes the labor a lot easier and lay a new piece down. And usually bathrooms aren't that large so your piece is like 30 bucks to buy a whole new piece. But if it is glued down then it's going to be easier to replace one section then if it's not glued down. Because if you take out one section then none of it is glued. So if you put one area that's glued down, you're going to have issues on the rest of your floor. Yeah, it's meant to be all glued or all not glued. Yeah. And some, some products are like can be half glued, but like just the edges, Yeah, just the edges. But we haven't run into a lot of those products, so. I think it's the higher end ones. Yeah, they're not really. Consumer, they have a harder like mesh backing, yeah that it provides more structural integrity to it. Yeah. So those are some things to think about, but it is not if you have like a wooden plank type looking a floor or like a tiled looking thing, it's a lot easier to replace a piece and have it kind of blended. Yeah, you can. Just like cut. Cut along yeah, the natural lines. So when you're installing. It if you have some scraps leftover, even if they're kind of small. I don't. I always, I always give them to the homeowner and and tell them to keep it because it I mean, if you have like 1 little area or something like that, like in the corner, you know who, who who even knows, then you can and you can replace it. All right, fix it. OK. But I do think the main purpose of me asking is linoleum is often referred to as something that's kind of cheap. And I think in some circumstances it is worth like replacing or I mean repairing because you can. I feel like if you take decent care of your linoleum, you can have it for a long time. You really can. And you can really get a lot of bang for your buck. But it also isn't like a super huge investment of money if you need to replace an entire room of it, OK if you have a hole in your hollow core door. Say replace it. I would say for my own purpose, I would replace it. But I will say there's a caveat. Sometimes you're a renter and your landlord won't replace it, and you're not going to pay for something that you're going to put into the landlord's house or you really don't have the resources to buy a new door, even a hollow Co door, which are pretty reasonably priced. If the door is painted, yeah, it can be repaired where you can't see it. If a door because a lot of hollow core, stored hollow core doors are stained because they're outsides are like a veneer, they're like a hardwood veneer. So they can be stained and they can look really nice. Which makes repair really difficult. You cannot repair. A hollow core door that has a wood veneer on the outside is not wood. You know. You cannot repair it in the traditional ways that you would repair wood, but a hollow core door that is painted, you can. There are ways to fill the hole and then you can smooth out the surface with bondo. With wood bondo, not like car bondo, you can smooth out the surface and then paint over it and you won't even be able to tell. But I will say that's laborious. So if you're doing it like in a rental or for yourself because you have bondo and you don't want to buy a new door, you absolutely can as long as it's painted and not a stained 1. I agree with all of that. Or you can fix the stained 1 and paint it. Yes, you could. I will say, which I will also say I just, I just binged our episodes this past weekend and learned that I say I will say 1000 times. So now I'm going to think about it every time I say it. But I will say there are some hollow corridors that are not wood veneer that are actually like a molded plasticy material. Those are not. Those are called. Composite. Yeah, those are not really repairable. Yeah, it kind of depends. But in some cases you can repair them with bundle. So there it's not always like lost hope in in those. But you know, if you have like a teenager or a child or something that has put a dent or a large hole in their hollow corridor, to be honest, I would not replace it because if it happened once, it might, probably will happen. Again, we've seen quite a. Few people just put in posters. Yeah, over the whole poster over which I mean like it. Basically you need to. Fix it before you move so your landlord doesn't take part of your security deposit. Just reach out to us. We'll. Tell you, yeah, yeah. How to fix it. That I if it were me, I would probably fix it and then replace it once the child has either become less of a tornado. Or has better major motor skills. Yeah, or like moved out for college or something. Or replace it with a solid corridor. Yeah, which is easy as an option too, yes. OK, let's talk about if you're having issues with your bathroom or sink faucet. I think if it's like a pressure issue or you can visibly see sediment, that's when you change out the aerator, which is the piece that. Little screen. It's a little screen. So Hannah just learned this. My twin aerators help you get the faucet shape, you know, and see cuz you know how like water comes out of the hose is kind of like just like clog, clog, clog like out the hose. The aerator is what makes it like a nice stream of water. And so when it gets clogged, because it's a series, I think usually a three to five screens in a little piece, then that's when you lose water pressure. That's when, like, water goes like, yeah, sometimes, like, weird out the side. I would say replacing a fog unless you're just doing it for aesthetics, in which case that's your choice if you want to replace it. If you're wondering if it's not working right, there are some instances where you just need to replace where it makes sense to replace it. Now if you have like some 100 year old super fancy faucet, you probably want to fix that, but most of us do not have that. So if the handle is broken, if the like gooseneck is bent like if something crazy happened or pieces of it are like flaking off, which can happen with some faucets that are like softer like softer metal, you can have it work corrodes then you just need to replace it. Or if I think which you can pay a plumber to come replace these. But if your handle itself is leaking, it means the cartridge which mixes hot and cold water in your faucet itself has gone bad. And so often, sometimes it's cheaper to just replace. Yeah, I will say, if you can replace your own faucet, 100% of the time it will be cheaper to buy a new faucet than to hire a plumber to fix. It yeah, that's true. Also if you have so I think we said for a common aerator you just unscrew it. If you have a pull down sprayer faucet, you actually please not the pull down tube before you take it off, but you can take the spray part off. Usually it's just like a button and pull it off and rinse it out. If you do not, not your tube and it goes back down into the thing. Oh, it can be asked. Us how we know 8 background at all. You end up instead of just cleaning out that part, you end up having to take the whole faucet off. So yeah, some faucets like in a normal like house, it would probably be like $50.00 to replace like a common like brush, Nicole. If you get like a Kohler or a Moen or Delta, it might be a little more expensive. Yeah, you get like a better than. A couple $100 if you're like a pull down sprayer kitchen faucet. Yeah, Kitchen, I'm thinking about that. Bathroom. Yeah, bathroom faucets are pretty. Reasonable and Moen I would. Moen and Delta and Kohler's really expensive, which I didn't know till I was looking at different options for a design project. But Moen and Delta both have really good, like help policies, aren't we? Yeah, yeah. And so it might be worth it to invest in like a better model. Yeah, just cheap. But you can think about like you can I, if it were me, I would be like, OK, I'm I can spend. If your faucet still looks in decent condition and it say it's like no more than like a year too old, I'd be like, OK, maybe I can figure out what this problem is. I do like a Google search or something. And then if it's like you have to change some kind of internal mechanism or you have to take the faucet off anyway, or any part of it could be like more than $15, I'd be like, just replace it. Yeah, because the amount of time you can spend into figuring it out for like, what would be like an extra $20 that you might just be like, I'm just gonna do this, solve my problem and then know that it's done and it's not gonna happen again. Yeah, if you have, if your water pressure diminishes over time and or you have the little spikes that start spraying sideways, your aerator is full of either minerals or rust, one or the other. And both of those problems can be solved with white vinegar, diluted white vinegar. So you can take the aerator off and that you can actually you could just like clean it out with a toothbrush, but you can also just plunk it into a cup of like diluted white vinegar and it will dissolve all of that and put it back on. And then I'll be like. Yeah, yeah, okay. Today is like allergy day. Yeah, lots of throat clearing and sniffing. Sorry, sorry folks. OK, so clearing. No, it's just. Broken window pane. You might need a professional to do it, but you can fix it. So you don't have to replace the entire window. You do not have to, no. Unless you have like the low E ones that have like the they have like a certain. The gas in the in between the two panes, but a double pane window can be replaced without taking out the sash, and definitely a single pane window can be done without. Think about the ones with like the grids you Each of those is an individual piece of glass and they will either be held in with glazing putty or with actual pieces of wood. So if it's actual pieces of wood, you would like gently pry out those the four pieces of wood around the square on just one side. You don't have to do it on both. And then like our local hardware store will cut a replacement piece of glass. You can buy a very small piece of glass and then you put it back in and then you like put the that trim back in. I would glue it back in, not nail it back in because some people will be skilled at not breaking their glass while nailing things, but that's probably not you if you're a homeowner. So I would recommend like using adhesive to put that back in. And if it's a large window, I would recommend hiring a window person, but I would hire a window person to fix it. Yeah, not to replace it because like a whole, if you replace a whole window, you have to pull the trim off the outside of it, pull the trim off the outside and it might be aluminum flashing. You have to pull that off, pull out the window, replace the window, restore the insulation, restore the trim around it. You have to recaulk, maybe repaint. If it's wood, like there's a lot of like it's very disrupted and they can fix the glass without doing all of that. So yeah. And I if you have one contract, one window contractor tell you it can't be done, I would just like sometimes it really can't be done. Sometimes they just won't get a new window. So I would just. For us, sometimes there are things that can't be done that we just can't do, but we will tell people that. But other times people be like that can't be done because they don't do that. But they might not go the extra step to say, but there are people who do. One of the reasons why sometimes just replace the glass is important is like one of our best customers and friends of ours, they just had a window repaired rather than replaced. But they're like the original wood Anderson windows. So yes, you could get another Anderson window and could get another one in wood, but it's not going to look like every other window in the house. So for them, getting the glass repaired is what made the most sense, both aesthetically, functionally and cost wise. Yeah, OK. We have two more. So a broken plumbing pipe. I'd say replace it. I'd say it depends whether it's a drain pipe or a vent pipe. A vent stack. I'd say then I I was just assuming drain. I guess, I mean, that's fair. I wanted to make this distinction because we have a customer who had this happen like this week. So a lot of us don't know that there are vents in our walls that are like are plumbing the the air and the gases escape and that keeps everything. I don't know exactly how it works, but that keeps like your things from gurgling and it like keeps. Your water moving pressure of your plumbing system. So you're going to have drain pipes, let's say it's PVC, you're going to have drain pipes that go down and you're going to have a pipe that goes up that's also PVC probably. One for water, one for air. Yeah, one for air. And this person had their vent stack was visible, which was a PVC pipe. In old houses it will be galvanized steel or lead or cast iron. But in hers, it was PVC because it's newer. So sure, vent stack looks through the attic and out her roof. Hers was broken in that case. I mean, we brought a plumber in to replace it, but because hers was like badly broken, like somebody stepped on it. But if you have a crack, you can wrap the pipe if it's the vent stack, because it's just air, it's going up. So if you have like a lot of times they'll be like a linear crack in a pipe. It would that separated but it's just like. Like a, Like a. Hairline fracture, right? Yes. Couldn't hold water, yes. But for air it's fine. You can just tape it. But 100% of the time if you have a drain pipe that's broken, it needs to be replaced. Or there are some proper repairs with Fernco couplers that are considered a replacement. But it kind of looks like a repair because it goes on the outside like ties, like the two parts of the pipe that are still solid. It basically ties them together. It's like sistering stuff together with rubber. Yeah, some people I have taken apart quite a bit of things that had been leaking or like either even if it wasn't like draining wasn't broken, it was like just not connected super well or the connection is loosened over time. Some people do put like putty, like wood or not wood putty, plumber's putty, plumber's putty, or there are some like copper pipe fixing materials which I don't know about the fixing the copper pipes. I did see some at at some point that like professionals were doing it. So I don't know about that. I can't speak to that. But if you have like a professional plumber that fixes your drain with like plumber's putty, that is not good. That's not OK. No. If you know you're in an emergency situation, sure. And you have to use your sink because it's like like everybody in your house needs to brush your sheath and you have to use. 20 people over for Thanksgiving dinner. Yeah, and you need. To buy yourself a couple hours. Yeah, you could probably get away with that. I mean, heck, you could get away with duct tape for a couple hours. Yeah, you could, but it's not a permanent solution. Any any way to fix that without replacing? It would not be a long term solution. And especially if you're paying a professional to come in and fix it, you deserve to have it fixed properly. Yes, yeah, OK. A broken door jam for safety replacing. Now if it's a broken door, jam on. An interior door? Yeah, fine. Then we're talking about wood. So a door jam is. Like the the two vertical pieces that go up the inside of the door frame and then the top one. If that's broken, they normally get broken because somebody kicks a door open that's locked. And do not think this is unusual. Just think about siblings of different ages who get take each other off and then they run to. Their room. And lock the door because they know they're in deep Doo Doo. And then the older sibling, like, kicks the door open. That does happen. And not even in like a like a disturbingly problematic child, but just like kids, yeah, that happens. That wood is amazing. It can be repaired. It can be whether it's like wood putty or bondo, depending on the level of damage. You can't. We've done them before. We glue it. Yeah, we if. You can push it back. Together we'll glue it and then clamp it in the repaired position. And then, you know, a couple hours later it's like great. And then you could just sand it down and paint it. But if it's an an entry door, which you could theoretically do the. Fixes you could but that. It's compromised structurally. And that's it's, if you think about it, you know, you have a deadbolt, you have a strike plate or you have a, a spring latch and a deadbolt. They go into the wood in your entryway. And so you have like the little metal plate, but that little metal plate is screwed into the wood. So if the wood is compromised, it becomes easier for someone to break into your house. And as women, this is something that we think about like you need, you need to have security. So yeah, we recommend when a when an entry jam is broken that it's replaced. Little tip. For safety when you have those latch plates it's actually really great. It only comes with like an inch screw to swap them with 2-3 inches. So the way a door goes together is we were talking about the jam which is kind of like the pretty part of the frame of the door. But there's usually there should be legit 2 by 4 framing around the door. And when you do the longer screws, which you might have to pre drill, just as a heads up, you might crack your jam if you just go for it. But when you add these two 3 inch screws, you're actually tying into that structural framing. Yeah, which is the frame of. So it's not just that one by piece of trim, you know that 3/4 of an inch that is holding your door shut, it is, you know, 3 inches or so going through the trim that that's connecting the metal plate to the trim to your stud which is connected above and below in your floor and your wall. So you have like so much more. Like. Structural integrity and a lot more resistance to something being kicked in or you know, and sometimes I guess I'm full of door tips today, but. Sometimes if your door it's like you see daylight from the door being like tipped, you can actually Swatch, swap some of your hinge screws for longer screws to pull the door up and structurally tie it to your studs. Yeah, if your door is tipping. Not necessarily. We've learned that stuff isn't. Always obvious to everybody and it's important to share stuff for the one person who might not know it. The top hinge of your door bears the. The majority of the weight, so if you think about if your door is kind of tipping away from the hinge side, chances are it's your top hinge probably only has one inch screws in it and they just overtime you put a lot of torque on your doors. So they get a lot of use. You can take out those. Short screws and replace. Even most hinges have three or 4 screws if you replace two of them with like a three inch screw and it's very satisfying you'll put that you'll just put that screw in and then in and it will just suck that hinge right back in where it belongs yeah yeah So if you're having issues with like your. Door shutting and properly and stuff I don't know. Check your hinge screws if your door in your door. DRAM is not physically broken. There's a lot of things that you can do to repair your your current door and door and have it function properly and have. It function we should do a whole episode. On because they're really when you a. Lot of people are like, I need a new door and we're like, you know what, if you want a new door, we are happy to replace the door for you. But if you're just annoyed that it rubs, you know, or it's hard to close, then those things are fixable. So we should do a separate episode because there are it's not like, oh, you know, it's magic to figure it out. There are like 12 or to 14 things that you can go through a checklist starting with like the top hinge. Like is it like is the gap too big on on the hinge side or is the gap too big on the strike plate? If you put a square on, the jam is the jam. Square, Yes, exactly. So we'll do that in a. Separate episode, but it can be so helpful because doors can be so annoying because you're like, I don't even know what's wrong. Like to fix it. I wanted to mention one product that we used at someone's house that might not even know exists. So bear with me. Can you imagine the tacos that come with the flat bottom, the stands up? OK, so they make they're called security plates. They make brass or like stainless steel security plates that look like that kind of Taco. And then before you install like your deadbolt, you actually put that security Taco over the door and then the deadbolt gets installed just like normal. But now I have seen those the bolt if you're. Trying if someone. 'S trying to mess with it. They have an entire piece of metal that they also have to like get rid of in order in order to break in. And so just you don't have to be scared in order to use them. If you live by yourself and you'd like a little more security, you can literally take out your like go to the hardware store, buy them, take out your lock, slide that Taco on the door, put your lock back in and then you get that extra level security. Cute too. They're kind of charming, so. If your door. Is only for separating rooms. You can probably repair your jam, but if it is for security you should really replace the jam. Which doesn't mean that you need a new door, no, and it doesn't even mean necessarily that you need to replace the entire jam. It might just be the side that is broken. Like you could probably multi tool it out. Put a new one body in there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And. Depending on how they're made or what kind of experience level you have, that kind of depends on what how you're able to fix it. But you do not always need a new door if your jam is broken. If somebody had kicked it in and there was major damage and the door is also broken and the lock is. Bent, I've actually seen. A door that had been kicked open and they had like 2 inch screws and it ripped out the front part of the two by four. That's a hard kick, yeah, but the. I mean, the door was. Team, What the heck? I think. I think for a battering ram, I don't. Know team. I don't know what it was, but it. It was, I, I think that maybe it had come off on the hinge side and then it was pulled off the other way or something. Well, that wouldn't make any sense. I don't know how it happened, but it, it had taken a chunk of the two by four with it. And I'm surprised. Sometimes we have to fix stuff and we just don't ask. Questions. Yeah, sometimes I see things and I'm like it. Is way easier if I just don't. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't know. I don't know my. Story. I just want to fix it if you have questions about. How to fix your door or anything else that we've talked about today. Guess what? We know some people who can help. We those people. We those people. And Emily tell them how they. Can find us. If you want to follow us on social media. You can find us on almost every platform at how to handyman and that's maam, not man. We know men's Yeah. And then on TikTok, you can find us doing some silly stuff, but on all of our platforms, we're doing a lot of teaching stuff that doesn't really necessarily make sense in an episode or needs visual, not an audio format. And then on Instagram, we're posting fun updates on our stories. So you should follow us on everything. Yeah, because there's a little bit of different stuff on everything. So. And then if you have questions for us, you can EMS at HTHM at my handyman.com. And finally, if you would like to join in the community slash cult slash movement, whatever you would like to refer to it as, we have a Facebook group that started it all called How to Handyman. And you can look up How to Handyman group on Facebook and join us and say hi. That's right. Well, thanks for joining us today. We'll see you again soon. Bye.
