Household maintenance book

Can anyone recommend a reasonable book on maintenance, for someone with minimal experience who is buying a house for the first time? Thanks for any suggestions.

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
nmm1
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Thanks to all. That sounds good. The regulations and changes in heating systems won't matter, as the recipient won't be doing much more than changing tap washers!

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
nmm1

Something like the Collins DIY manual used to be good. Not sure if they have kept it revised with developments especially in heating systems.

According to Amazon, there is anew edition coming out

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Reply to
Bob Minchin

Yup, Collins is excellent. Easy to dip in and out of and not difficult to understand if your new to DIY.

There are some minor additions in later editions but the majority of basic information obviously doesn't change.

The Readers Digest is a good second choice.

If you're not in a desperate hurry, it's worth keeping an eye out in WHSmith and on Amazon because they pop up on promotion at five or six quid. Both of them have the Readers Digest at present for just over =A39.

Reply to
mike

Yup - Collins is the only one I've seen that isn't dire. Rather weak on building regs, and idealises/oversimplifies some tasks (e.g. the novice might have trouble detecting that one task is a whole lot more ambitious than another, because the book presents them equally).

But generally speaking it's good enough that provided you build-up your skills starting with the more straightforward stuff and don't get overly-ambitious, the guidance is sound.

Reply to
dom

Houses are expensive, so more than one book is entirely in proportion.

You probably need an overall lightweight DIY guide, so I'd agree with the Collins rec.

Treloar's "Plumbing" (NVQ textbook) is good, if you're planning serious new work.

For having long and expensive chats with builders, "The Construction of Houses" will equip you to understand what on earth they're talking about. Useful on insulation issues too.

To keep it local to cam.ac, David MacKay's "Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air" is a good read on energy topics (domestic and international) and it's a free download too.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

My wife got me the Readers Digest one as a present when we moved in. Whilst it has an excellent subject range and lots of good pictures and explanations, it very much concentrates on the "ideal world" scenario where nothing ever goes wrong, all walls are straight and true, you simply tighten up fittings and they never leak etc etc. So although it gives you the background knowledge, only experience can prepare you for what happens in real life. For instance, although it taught me how to scribe internal corners when fitting new skirting, it still took me

3 attempts to get it right, taking into account the slope of the floor and the angles of the adjacent boards and walls!

I have been reading this newsgroup for about 8 years and to be honest it gives you all the help you need! I certainly wouldn't have tackled the house I'm in now without its help.

Luke

Reply to
Luke

I have both, and find that the Collins is the one most often used.

Reply to
S Viemeister

Yeah. But, for this purpose, it's streets better. The recipient has never changed a tap washer or tightened up hinges (that's what fathers are for). Well, tough. A house of your own means that it's YOUR problem now :-)

I got really caught when first hanging paper, where the books say start with a vertical and work round, matching edges. In the domestics' quarters of a 17th century house? There ain't no planar surface, let alone a vertical or horizontal ....

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
nmm1

oxfam bookshops usually have a shelf full. [g]

Reply to
george [dicegeorge]

I think flicking through Razzle will be more hinderance than help.

Reply to
mike

Boggle. It seems to have changed between my first and second inspections. Either there are two books, or I picked up an adjacent one the first time and didn't notice! Not implausible, as I can't see on the shelf without glasses, and can't read the index with :-(

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
nmm1

Yes, and they'll be old ones, full of encouragement to do your own rewiring!

Our bathroom has a pile of my Dad's ancient copies of Practical Householder: '50s to '70s. The '50s stuff is excellent: how to take a bomb site and build your own Modern tower block upon it, from scratch. Having first built your own concrete mixer, using bearings courtesy of the RAF surplus and a pre-war Scott motorbike as an engine.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

To which magazine?

Reply to
Andy Dingley

If you're lucky you might get one explaining that you should fill your tobacco tin junction boxes with tar after just twisting the wires together.

:)

NT

Reply to
Tabby

Seems to me these books are all obsolete. You can get far better advice on uk.d-i-y, anything unclear can be explained, links to suppliers, any problems with your ideas pointed out, you name it. Also wiki articles that although not perfect beat any house maintenance book I've seen,

NT

Reply to
Tabby

I disagree. As good as uk.d-i-y is at providing answers to questions, and the archives a valuable resource too, I don't think you can beat one of these books for the DIY beginner where subjects are discussed in a concise manner with pictures too. Even when not needing a specific question answering they are extremely useful to just browse through and pick up on things that may one day be useful.

For what it's worth to the OP, I cut my teeth on the Collins manual however having occasionnally flicked through my friend's Reader's Digest I suspect their may be value in having both. I also second the Construction of Houses recommendation if you want to know some of the details of what's going on 'under the skin' which you might not otherwise get to appreciate.

Mathew

Reply to
Mathew Newton

Indeed. It's been a little while since I last looked but none of the books I read even covered sealed heating systems, assuming that all systems are still vented.

Reply to
Mark

I do find the old DIY books are still fun to browse - especially for unfamiliar things, like fiddly joinery in my case(!)

Yes - I noticed the lack of modern heating systems too. Fortunatunatly, I like open vented systems for their simplicity and will eventually install one anyway and I don't care how "old fashioned" that makes me look!

Reply to
Tim Watts

It's quite hard to find good older books on joinery. There was a huge drought in cabinetmaking post-war, that lasted into the '80s. Although people like the ubiquitous Charles Hayward were publishing plenty, the work in there is really rather poor and usually plug-ugly '50s Modernist pastiche, compared to the content of similar books from the '20s and '30s.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

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