Quick Fixes

I've written before that every household needs a good, fairly comprehensive repair manual. There are a couple reasons for this. First, a lot of basic maintenance and repairs are simple and really not worth the hassle of calling a landlord about. After all, not everyone's landlord is helpful. Or competent. Plenty of tenants have complained about the shoddy patch-up jobs or scary wiring work of their landlords (please, landlords everywhere, hire a decent electrician!).

But there are other good reasons. Some green projects require a few construction-related skills that you may not have. And if your landlord's letting you do 'em, you'd better do 'em right and make 'em look pretty.

That said, my favourite general repair manuals are big, cost more than $40 and contain a lot of material that renters just don't need. I mean, how often is a tenant going to be insulating an attic or hanging a curtain wall?

A new book just came across my desk that brings us a lot closer to the sort of repair manual that a tenant needs. It's DIY Quick Fix, a spin-off on the successful Do It Yourself book that came out a couple years ago. Like its cousin, DIY Quick Fix is an American title Canadianized by Jon Eakes. (A pet peeve of mine is manuals that give instructions that don't meet Canadian building code requirements.)

The Quick Fix is a small, spiral-bound book, which means it'll lie open to the right page for easy reference. It's also got a cover price of $20, about half that of the full manual.

Best of all, the 100 repairs in it are comparatively small things, and include many that a tenant may need to take care of. It's a great list, including fixing paint drips to replacing a broken bathroom tile, patching a hole in the drywall, repairing a drawer handle and replacing a broken electical receptacle.

Some, such as instructions on how to patch simple leaks in water pipes, will also have environmental benefits. After all, landlords and their repair folk don't always show up quickly and a lot of water can leak while you wait. And your stuff is getting wet.

More than a good green book, this is a good buy for tenants. It'll help you keep your pad looking good and functioning well, and if you live in a place with mandatory deposits, it'll probably pay for itself when you move out and don't lose money to the landlord for that hole in the drywall that happened when your college drinking buddy was over and... well, that's a story for another blog.

How (and why) to fix a toaster

A few months ago, a friend's coffee grinder broke. Coffee grinders, like toasters and other small appliances, are often cheapter to throw away and replace than to repair. But think about the waste.

If you just don't like your small appliance anymore, or are replacing it because you need a new function (like a timer or auto shutoff on a coffee maker), then there are plenty of places to take working appliances, clothes, furniture and all sorts of household goods for re-use. And, as we all know, it's better to re-use most items than to recycle them. The city I live in, Toronto, has a web page full of links for such wonderful places.

Sadly, a lot of working appliances and electronics do end up going to landfills. These range from ugly old toasters to last year's cell phones. In 2000/2001, Toronto studied the composition of its garbage. According to a six-week sampling of 80 single-family households, goods such as appliances, small appliances, electronics and furniture accounted for 12 percent of waste. That's 116 kg per household per year. In those six weeks, the 80 households dumped 67 kilograms of small appliances and electronics. That's equivalent to almost a toaster for every second household in just six weeks!

This is one area where, according to the study, apartment-dwellers fare better. The study also looked at 826 households in multi-unit dwellings. The average apartment only tossed the equivalent of 4 kg of small appliances or electronics per year.

But still, even if every Torontonian threw away only as much as the residents of a typical apartment, we'd be looking at about 4 million kilograms of small appliances and electronics in the garbage every year. That's about 2 million two-slice toasters.

So, what can we do? In some cases, we can fix 'em.

My friend pointed me to a nifty site, fixitclub.com. It has instructions on maintenance and repair of all sorts of things, particularly small appliances like toasters and coffee grinders.

Me, I like books, so I'm always on the lookout for a good book that'll guide me through a problem. Sadly, there are few books on the market today that instruct people on small appliance repair.

One that does cover some small appliances in a simple, straightforward way is How to Fix Everything for Dummies. It covers the basics and is easy to follow. It does not, contrary to its title, include instructions on how to fix everything. It does have instructions on fixing lots of things, from simple household repairs to small appliances. The small appliances section is brief, but does cover things like the upright vacuum, iron and food processor. It does not actually tell you how to repair these things, generally. Instead, it covers what I would call maintenance. That is, how to take apart and clean them, and some simple adjustments that'll give 'em a longer life. It also covers large appliances, heating and air conditioning systems, and lots of other household concerns. And at about $25 (Canadian), it's not a major investment.

Small appliances are a concern because they're bulky items to send to landfill. But the real danger is electronics. These contain many components that will leach dangerous heavy metals. Like small appliances, they're often less expensive to replace than to repair. Or at least so it seems.

If we factored in the cost of safely disposing of, or recycling, the components of most electronics, repairing them would be a much more cost-effective proposition. Right now, that cost is borne by the general public. My taxes pay for your waste. Not fair.

More often, though, nobody is paying for proper disposal. Cell phones, printers, old computers, they all too often are just tossed into a landfill. Future generations will end up paying through the nose for expensive cleanup projects as water and soil become contaminated. I'm a father. I don't want that legacy for my son.

What I would like to see is something called "Extended Producer Responsibility." That's a system in which manufacturers are responsible for their products, even after they've been sold to a consumer. When their life is done, the products go back to the manufacturers (or the manufacturers pay for proper recycling or disposal). Apply the idea to packaging, and you can bet we'll see a lot less of those hard-to-open, non-recyclable plastic packages on toys and video games. (If you're not sure what's recyclable and live in Toronto, see my post here.)

In the meantime, lots of electronic devices can be repaired. Some can be fixed by an average lay person. Most will require some legitimate training in electronics. I thought I'd hit paydirt when I found Troubleshooting and Repairing Consumer Electronics Without a Schematic. It's writtin in plain language! I understand most of it! Unfortunately, to actually make use of it would require a couple years of education that I'm sadly lacking. So, if anyone in my neighbourhood wants to field test my copy, you're welcome to it. Just promise that you'll repair at least one radio, VCR, television or DVD player and keep it out of a landfill.

Essential bookshelf title

Homeowners have to tackle every repair by themselves (or hire someone to do it). One of the joys of being a tenant is that not ever repair is your responsibility. A leaky roof or crumbing wall is the landlord's to fix. But a lot of repairs can be done easily, and it can sometimes be more convenient or less stressful to just take care of them.

More importantly, a lot of repairs and maintenance issues are also important conservation measures. Whether it's fixing a leaky faucet, caulking around windows or installing a programmable thermostat, you are fully capable of doing it yourself and helping save energy, water and, if you pay utilities, money.

As a result, I always suggest that everyone should have at least one basic home repair manual. The one I've chosen to keep on my shelf is Do It Yourself: a step-by-step guide to fixing, building, and installing almost anything in your home. As with all such books, there's more than a renter will need, particularly for those who live in apartment buildings. But for those of us who rent houses, there are lots of minor repairs that need doing, and this book is the best general guide I've come across.

A very close second choice, in my opinion, is the Home Depot Home Improvement 1-2-3. It's a great book, but is American. As a result, the instructions do not take into account differences in Canadian building codes. The second edition had a section on Canadian code at the back, but that meant flipping back and forth. A new third edition is coming out soon, and we'll see if they've fixed this flaw.

To be fair, DIY is also a U.S. title. But the Canadian edition was adapted by celebrity handyman Jon Eakes. Knowing that he's gone over it carefully gives me extra confidence in its advice. It's not a perfect book, but I've found its instructions to be accurate and easy to follow.