Work out what you are looking at
Home repair guides
Most repair questions start with a symptom rather than a service. A stain on the ceiling, a door that only sticks in summer, a floor with give in it. These work through what is actually happening, what it usually means in a house around here, and whether it needs doing now or can wait.
What a water stain on the ceiling actually means
The mark is downstream of the leak. Where it sits, what shape it makes, and whether it is still wet decide the rest.
Read itWhy a door sticks in summer and not in winter
A door that sticks a little worse every year is usually a top hinge letting go of the jamb, and the gap around it says which.
Read itWhat a soft, springy or squeaky spot in the floor means
Bounce, a soft patch and a dip are three different faults, and which one you have decides whether it can wait.
Read itWhy gutters overflow even when they look clear
An empty trough still runs over when the pitch is off, the downspout is packed, or a valley is dumping into one foot of gutter.
Read itWhich wall cracks matter, and which do not
A hairline over a door frame is the house moving. A step you can feel across a crack, or mortar cracking in stairs, is a different question.
Read itHow to tell whether to repair or replace
One test decides it: what a screwdriver finds under the damaged surface, not what the surface looks like.
Read itWhy exterior paint fails early in Northwest Georgia
Paint that lets go early is reporting on the surface under it, the water behind it, or the sun on that wall. The black speckling is something else.
Read itWhat to fix before you sell, and what to leave
The repairs that turn into a number at the negotiating table, and the improvements that never come back.
Read itWhat a musty smell in the house is usually telling you
Damp under a house arrived from outside, and the downspouts and the grading are the most common way in.
Read itHow to tell if a deck is still safe
The ledger, the post bases and the railing decide whether a deck is safe. The boards mostly decide how it looks.
Read itWhy a list of small jobs costs less per job
The trip is a fixed cost either way, so the way to spend less on small jobs is to stop calling them in one at a time.
Read itWhen a job needs a licensed trade, and when it does not
Some trades are licensed at any size. What is left turns on job size, and repair sits under that line.
Read itHow to find studs, and why a magnet beats the electronic finder
An electronic finder reads density and gets fooled. A magnet finds the actual fastener, which is the actual stud.
Read itHow to patch a hole in drywall so it disappears
Filling a hole takes ten minutes. Making the patch invisible six months later is the part that has a method.
Read itStill not sure what you are looking at?
Send a photo and a sentence. You will get a straight answer, including when the answer is that it can wait.