If you are faced with a home repair to your foundation, don’t ignore it. The foundation of a home is the most important structural element in a house. Floors, walls, the roof all depend on solid bearing, and if the foundation to your home is splitting apart, dropping, sliding, etc., the rest of your home will probably suffer significant damage.

The home foundation repair cost that you may get quoted by a contractor will likely take your breath away. It can take specialized equipment and methods to stabilize a foundation. Some repairs that correct a bowing concrete-block foundation wall can be done with little effort, while installing poured concrete piers under a settling footer can by much more invasive. Each job often has a specialized solution.

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To repair a home foundation, the first thing I recommend is to call a residential structural engineer. These professionals know the real stresses on a foundation, and they can provide solid engineered solutions based upon physics, mathematics and schooling. These engineers often know excellent foundation repair contractors who do very good work.

One of the things you have to be very careful of when repairing a shifting foundation is concentrating loads to other points of the foundation as you try to repair the problem. A great engineer will make sure this doesn’t happen. For example, let’s say a house is constructed on spongy soil. One end of the house is settling more than the other. If you pier just the one drooping end and stabilize it, you can create new cracking at the other end as it may continue to drop. It’s all very complicated, and repair companies may not have the engineering background to anticipate this.

Unfortunately, when you start to look into the event that was the cause of the home foundation repair, it is almost always related to poor construction practices by the builder. The home may have been built on poorly compacted soil, a footer may be too narrow or too thin, there may be no reinforcing steel in a poured concrete wall, or a concrete block foundation wall may have never been filled solid. There are many places where a builder can cut corners or not make the foundation as strong as possible.

It’s imperative that you consult with a great engineer as you plan to build a home so that you take the time to construct a solid foundation. It often costs just a little more to get a superb foundation that will not let you down.

Foundation repair is a huge industry. There are many types of methods and products that will do a fantastic job of making permanent repairs. When I was still building on a day-to-day basis, I did several major repairs to foundations. The most common foundation failure I witnessed in Cincinnati, OH, was an older poured concrete foundation that would develop a horizontal crack in the wall. In many cases, the soil pressure would cause the wall to bow inwards. A thicker concrete wall or vertical steel bars in the wall would often prevent this.

To repair this horizontal crack, you had all sorts of options. You could actually straighten the wall by digging out the soil around the exterior of the foundation and using horizontal jacks to push the crack together. Once the wall was plumb and in the same plane, vertical small I-beams could be placed tight against the wall so it would not bow inwards once the soil was placed against the wall.

In certain situations, you didn’t have to do all this work as the same result could be achieved by placing large steel plates at the crack on the inside of the home. A thick threaded rod would then be placed through the wall and connected to a large plate put in the soil outside. When you turned a nut inside, it would pull the two plates together which over time would straighten the wall. The point is that there are different methods to repair foundations.

Cracks in poured concrete foundation walls can sometimes be repaired with amazing epoxy compounds. When the epoxy is applied to solid, clean concrete, it can lock the two pieces together permanently. In some cases, the cured epoxy is many times stronger than the original concrete.

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Home window repair is not as hard as it may seem. Granted, there are hundreds of different window types, styles, and hardware all cutting across at least one hundred years, but you’ll discover that many home windows repair techniques are the same. I can clearly remember working on a sticky crank mechanism in the original steel casement windows in my childhood home. What’s more, I can remember the first time I took apart a traditional up / down wood sash window to replace a broken rope that connected to the cast-iron weight that counter balanced the sash.

Modern windows have become slightly more complex with the spring-loaded jambs that have taken the place of the clumsy, yet effective, cast-iron window weights. If you have to repair a modern spring balance, you often have to replace the side jamb. These jambs are typically held in place with hidden clips.

If you can’t figure out how to get the jamb out, always visit a local distributor who sells that window. Their service manager can take you to the showroom and demonstrate how to take apart the moving parts of the window.

Home window glass repair is a very common task. Rocks, balls, furniture, etc. can break glass with ease. With old windows, it’s usually just an exercise in removing the old putty on the outside of the window. You’ll then see tiny metal clips or spring-loaded clips that press the glass tightly against the mortised frame. These clips need to be removed to get all the glass out and the new glass panel in place. It’s not hard to get these clips out, but it’s very important to use them when you install new glass. Without the clips, the glass panel can easily be pushed from the inside, and it will pop out of the frame falling to the ground below.

Some window glass can’t be repaired this way. For many years if you broke the glass in an Andersen casement vinyl-clad window, you had to buy the entire sash with the new glass. It’s extremely easy to remove the sash from the hinges, but the price tag of a new sash may take your breath away.

Home window repair parts can be tough to find the older the windows are. You can discover a treasure trove of them if you establish a relationship with the sales manager of a local window-replacement company. Think for a moment. Imagine how many houses a company like that works in each month. The salesmen/women for a window company get inside many houses and may see what you need.

There’s a great chance houses near you have the same windows. If you tell the window-replacement company that you need certain parts, they may allow you to salvage them from windows they take out of a house. You just have to take photos of your windows and any logo information you may see on the window jambs, frames or hinges and take these with you when you visit the window-replacement company.

When it’s time to do a broken home-window repair, don’t panic. Try to be prepared in case you have a catastrophic accident and the window is open to the elements. Have plywood handy so you can cut a panel to protect your home. If repairs are not so imminent, just try to see what the problem is and contact the local distributor who handles that brand of window. Sometimes the name of the window manufacturer is imprinted in the lower corner of the glass, on the crank hardware, on the locking hardware or the hinges.

One thing you need to monitor is the condition of window sills and the lower parts of wood window jambs. Back in the 1980’s, a defective clear wood preservative was used on many window and door products. It was determined this chemical was defective causing the windows to rot. It happened at my own home.

Each spring, test your window sills and jambs with a screwdriver to see if the wood is soft. If you discover soft wood, there are additives that you can impregnate the wood with to strengthen it. If the rot is fairly bad, you can use epoxies to rebuild the wood profile. In any event, you need to make sure the window parts are painted well to ensure water can’t get into the seams where the jamb meets the window sill.

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Home maintenance repair is, in my opinion, a dying craft. Years ago, fathers and mothers would teach sons and daughters home maintenance & repair skills. It was just as natural as doing laundry, cutting the grass, or any other chore. But for some reason in the 1980’s, the home-improvement service industry saw explosive growth. If you want my opinion, it was directly related to the irresponsible expansion of consumer credit that is part of the reason the economy of 2008-2009 is in a shambles. People could easily put a home repair on a charge card, or they took out a home-equity loan. But I digress.

Many folks now are discovering they made a mistake by not trying to do more home maintenance and repair themselves. Not everyone is in this boat, as statistics show that about 25 percent of the population of the USA are do-it-yourselfers. That’s tens of millions of people. My personal statistics show that this group is primarily the under-30 crowd and the over-60 crowd. Both of these groups tend to have limited incomes and lots of time on their hands. That’s a great recipe for sharpening your home-maintenance skills.

If you’ve not attempted any home-maintenance repairs, don’t worry. Many tasks are not that hard, even changing out an electrical switch or outlet. What’s more, as you start to educate yourself, you’ll get enormous satisfaction as you complete small jobs.

For example, let’s say you want to change out an old tubular doorknob. This job may be intimidating if you’re working on an exterior door, so I suggest you start with an interior door. These interior locksets generally have just a few screws that hold them together. Then you just have two screws that hold the moving latch that goes in and out of the edge of the door. Replacing a lockset like this takes just 15 minutes, often less than that. The biggest thing you need to do before you start the job is make sure you get a new one that has the correct backset.

The backset for a door knob is the distance from the edge of the door to the center of the door knob. Usually this distance is 2 and 3/8ths inches for an interior lockset. It can be 2 and 3/4 inches, as this was the size I always used on my own homes and houses I built. This larger size gives your hand more space so knuckles don’t rub against the door jamb.

To improve your hand-eye coordination, you should try to practice at caulking. When I say practice, I mean it. This is an area people make mistakes. They try to do a job they’ve never done before in an area seen by many. So take two pieces of scrape lumber and nail them together along their edges making an inside corner. There will be a crack there, so take some inexpensive acrylic caulk and fill the gap. Use your finger to smooth the caulk and a wet sponge to dress the caulk so it’s as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

If you want to attempt rough carpentry repairs, practice by possibly making a dog house. This sounds crazy, but a dog house requires you to discover how to measure, cut, nail, install siding, cut roof rafters, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Aside from the satisfaction you gain from doing home repairs yourself, you can save boatloads of money. Yes, there is a time factor involved depending upon how much you value your time, but if money is tight, you just can’t always afford the hundreds or thousands of dollars it might cost to hire a pro. Installing a simple water heater can save you hundreds of dollars. The trick is to read up on the process now, practice soldering scrap copper pipe, not the day your heater springs a leak.

Concrete and blacktop repairs are something you can tackle as well. Caulking cracks in concrete and blacktop is easy. To disguise the caulk, always be sure to get some sand that matches the color of the sand in the concrete or blacktop. Use the matching color of caulk as well. After installing the caulk carefully, and I mean just 2-foot stretches, sprinkle the dry sand on the fresh caulk and tap it lightly with your finger to make a great bond. The sand will disguise the harsh caulk line. If the crack is wide, push small stones into the fresh caulk that match stones in the blacktop.

When you start to learn how to paint, start inside a closet. Make all the mistakes in there. Once you have perfected your technique, then move into the main part of the room. Just think where you can test your skills doing the least amount of damage.

Take your time and enjoy yourself. You can do many home repairs if you put your mind to it. Carry a great attitude into the project. Keep telling yourself it’s a church job. Craftsmen of old who built churches always did their best work there for several reasons, not the least of which was that the entire community knew who worked in the church!

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DEAR TIM: Because of the faltering economy, home remodeling and repair is a hot topic in our family. We can’t move to a different home, and we can’t afford to hire contractors. What home repairs would you recommend we attempt on our own? I believe I can tackle some house remodeling tasks, and I want to add whatever value I can with home improvement. What’s a good strategy to adopt when it comes to do-it-yourself (diy) remodeling? Meg S., Welch, MN

DEAR MEG: If it’s any consolation, you’re not alone. Millions of homeowners are attempting renovation projects, as well as major diy home improvements because money is tight. The truth is many of these projects will probably end in partial failure, but not because the intentions were bad. Remodeling can be tough, it requires many skills, and you’d be shocked at the number of specialty tools you need to do certain tasks.

First, don’t totally give up on contractors. Times are tough for them, and you may be able to get fantastic deals, or at the very least, they may work along side you when you get to difficult parts of a job. When times are good, most building contractors wouldn’t consider smaller jobs or working with homeowners. But in these tough times, all bets are off. Many a contractor is in survival mode, and you just might get his attention with your offer.

The alcoves on either side of the fireplace will soon have simple shelves. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

If you don’t have lots of experience working on home improvements, then I strongly recommend that you start with modest home-repair projects to boost your skills and your confidence. Don’t underestimate the enormous amount of time it takes to do what you feel is a simple project like a bathroom remodeling job. A major bathroom remodel can take a professional at least one hundred hours of time. Can you imagine how long it can take you with no experience and limited tools?

When you start projects that you’ve never done before, it’s really easy to get in over your head fast. An example is installing ceramic tile. If you become mesmerized by those television shows you see on cable TV that say how easy it is, beware! It’s not easy to get professional results the first time. I always recommend that you do a small test section on a scrap piece of cement board. You’ll quickly discover the challenges. You even want to try to grout this test panel before you attempt a real grouting job.

The same is true for plumbing or carpentry tasks. Try to solder a scrap piece of copper pipe before you attempt to cut into a real water line. Be sure to read up on the process and watch free online videos about home repairs. When it comes to carpentry jobs, try to take some scrap wood and make practice cuts before you cut into an expensive 16-foot length of crown molding.

As far as which home-repair projects you should attempt on your own, there is an abundant list to choose from. Some simple things that come to mind are door knobs, caulking, installing a storage cabinet or new shelves, etc. I highly recommend that you start with tasks that you can complete in less than two hours. If you attempt tougher jobs that might last all day, you run the risk of getting frustrated. Frustration can lead to cutting corners.

Exterior remodeling projects are also a way to get great exercise and add some value. If you have a smaller one-story home, perhaps it needs a fresh coat of paint. While it takes a while to paint an entire home, perhaps other family members can join in the fun doing all the different tasks like scrapping, washing the house and caulking any cracks. A freshly painted home looks great, and can be a great source of pride.

As you start to have more home-improvement successes, start tackling tougher jobs. Perhaps attempt to replace a sink faucet. If you are really feeling your oats, try to install a patio or a deck. If you want a significant challenge, try to build a small outdoor shed. This project is similar to a room addition, but on a very small scale. A shed requires you to discover what it takes to install a simple foundation, frame walls, floors and a roof and install siding and shingles. You’ll be really proud of yourself if you achieve all those things.

As you attempt more difficult projects, be sure to have Plan B ready in case you fail. This may be something as simple as a tarp to cover a roof you attempt to redo on your own. If you underestimate the difficulty and time it takes to re-roof part of your home, you better be ready to secure the open area with a tarp that won’t blow away nor let in a driving rain.

Take the time to really research how to do things. The Internet has vast amounts of free information, granted not all of it is accurate, that can help you get an upper hand when you sail into uncharted do-it-yourself waters. Many manufacturers’ websites also have instructional videos that show you how to use their products. Watch these so you don’t waste time nor the materials.

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Home repairs are part of my DNA. I have memories of me trying to fix things around my house when I was very young. I distinctly remember my Dad and my Uncle Raymond transforming our single-car garage into a bedroom for me. This was a major home repair do-it-yourself job that was a huge undertaking for my Dad, who was a disabled veteran from World War II. I remember trying to drill holes into the concrete foundation wall that were for anchors for the firring strips. It took a long time to drill just one hole. Too bad hammer drills were not yet invented!

In-home repairs are a great way to save money. This is why my Dad transformed the garage, as we couldn’t afford to have a contractor do the work. When you get ready to try home repairs yourself, you absolutely want to start with smaller tasks. When you start to have tiny successes, you’ll be mentally prepared to tackle something a little harder the next time around.

To do home repairs, you must have some decent tools. If you don’t have good tools or the wrong tool, you’ll discover quickly that it takes longer, and you get inferior results. Something as simple as using the wrong-sized Phillips screwdriver is an example. If you use a #1 bit in a screw that’s made for a #2 screwdriver, you’ll struggle. Imagine trying to dig a simple hole for a post using a square-point shovel instead of a round-point shovel or even better, a post-hole digger! You need the correct tool for the job.

Do-it-yourself home repairs can range from fixing a door that swings open on its own (just take the hinge pin out and put a slight bend in it by striking it with a hammer), to installing a gorgeous concrete patio with the help of a few friends. You may even try to install a new garage door. There are thousands of home repairs to choose from, you just have to make sure you don’t get in over your head. That happens more often than not.

Free home repairs may be attractive, because the price is right, but you know the old saying: You get what you pay for. Even if you have friends come to help for free, they may not have the same desire to produce the quality that you have. I was very lucky to have several friends, Roger and Loren, who over the years have pitched in to help me. They always tried to produce professional results. Friends like this are rare, so be prepared for lower-quality work if you go the free route.

If you’re a beginner, some communities offer great home repairs how-to classes or seminars. In fact, I just taught one here in Meredith, NH. It was well attended, and the people who came went away with a new appreciation of plumbing. Plumbing projects are frequently at the top of home repairs improvements that people attempt. I believe the reason is the high cost of plumbers. Homeowners want to save money, so they try to switch out a toilet or change a faucet.

DIY home repairs can be a success right out of the box if you practice first. The biggest problems I see each day as I read desperate emails containing pleas for help from DIY’rs is that they started a project with no experience.

Installing floor tile and then grouting it is an example. The best way to learn how to do this is to buy an extra 3 ft. x 5 ft. sheet of cement board and take some cheaper tile to cover it. The next day get out the sanded grout and grout this panel. Just lay this cement board in your garage or in the room you’re tiling. You want to practice on the small panel you can carry out to the curb for the garbage man.

Home electrical repairs are one area that I often try to discourage rookies from attempting. Electricity is a sinister killer. You rarely hear about people drowning in their own homes from a plumbing leak, but you hear about people dying each week from fires caused by electrical malfunctions. Many of these fires can be traced to electrical repairs done by a person who had no experience or by a person who didn’t follow the electrical code.

When you decide to get serious about your home-improvement repairs, be sure to take the time to research how the job should be done and the correct products to use. Let’s say you just want to paint the outside of your home. Without doing the research at a website like AsktheBuilder.com, you might go to the home-improvement center big box store and walk away with inferior paint. You may also start the job on the sunniest, hottest and windiest day of the summer thinking that’s great weather.

The truth be told, you need a superior paint from a national paint store that has urethane-acrylic resins. What’s more, you want to paint on overcast days where the temperature is between 65-75 F. Paint will adhere best if it’s allowed to dry slowly on an overcast day. NEVER paint in direct sunlight as that can cause rapid drying and blisters. Major home repairs like painting your own home must be done right so you don’t waste time and money.

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