Customer Reviews

Black & Decker The Complete Photo Guide to Home Improvement: With 300 Projects and 2,000 Photos (Black & Decker Complete Photo Guide)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best home improvement manual I've been able to find. I recently embarked on a journey to convert a kitchen pantry into a half bath. Although I'm fairly handy with tools, I've never done a significant house project before. After starting in on the destruction of the pantry (ripping down plaster) my neighbor loaned me this book to poke through. Eventually I picked it up and the more I read, the more I found relevant to my project. Eventually I found myself hovered over this book prior to doing just about anything short of driving a nail (I may have even looked that up!) Let me say that everything involved in installing a bathroom is in this book - framing for the new walls, installing drywall, taping and finishing drywall, installing DWV pipes, installing plumbing supply lines, installing the electricity, installing ceramic tile floor, installing the sink, everything, and more. The first 100 pages or so are dedicated to the high-level subjects (carpentry, plumbing, wiring, etc) and even include some general building code information.
Unfortunately, my neighbor came to reclaim the book, and after looking for a book of similar substance, I have circled back to this one. Today I'm buying this book with the Complete Photo Guide to Outdoor Home Improvement (I've been asked to build a brick patio next.) As a former Army helicopter mechanic, I used to feel as though with a chopper manual and the right tools I could fix anything. Seriously, this book makes me feel the same way about home improvement projects. I can't think of anything you could do to the interior of a home that's not in this book. Want to rip down an interior wall to open up living space? In here. How about a glass block partition around your shower stall? Yep. Skylights? A bay window? Parquet floors? Stucco finish on the walls? All in this book.

I bought this book just before purchasing my first home. It provided me with the information I needed to make successful improvements to my home.

Within a week after purchasing my house, I was installing new flooring, toilets, sinks, faucets, electrical outlets and switches, and light fixtures. These are things that I had NEVER done, but was able to do successfully with the help of this book.

If you do get this book, I also strongly recommend the Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Repair as a companion. There is some overlap between the two books, but there are important pieces that are exclusive to each. Best wishes with your project!

The B&D Home Improvement book is the core of my home improvement library. I reviewed other home improvement books at Home Depot, but liked B&D's books. I also own the B&D Home Repair and B&D Bathrooms books. The three books use many of the same pictures, but I do not regret buying any of them. I prefer this book over the others because the projects it covers are things I would like to do, like remodeling a bathroom, etc. In addition, the book covers making things from "scratch" which is how many projects are once you finish the demolition phase. In comparison, the home repair book focuses on repairs rather than new projects.

As an engineer, I consider myself "above average" in home repair. However, this book has saved me a few times, when I got lost, such as helping me to understand a three way electric switch circuit for my kitchen light.

The cut away diagrams are very useful; especially for the plumbing sections. They literally cut things in half, to show you the inside view, whether it be a garbage disposal or a shower stall.

Black & Decker used significant resources in making this book because in a way it is an advertisement for B&D tools. The book conveniently displays and uses Black & Decker tools in the pictures. Bear in mind that Black & Decker is in the business of selling tools, not books. However, that being said the book is still a great reference.

This book is excellent! I own my own business as a real estate entrepreneur and part of the business at times involves repairing and/or remodeling older homes before I sell or rent them. After doing a significant amount of research on home repair/improvement books on the market by paging through several at bookstores and reading online reviews, I came to the conclusion that this book would suit my needs the best.

I already purchased the complimentary book, "The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair" by the same publisher about 6 months ago and this book is of similar quality and style.

The first thing you notice is its weight. It must weight at least 6 pounds! The numerous full color photos illustrating each of the 250 home improvement projects are what seperates this book from the others (which frequently only contain diagrams and/or illustrations). The photos make it much easier to understand the step-by-step tasks and instructions for each project.

The first 20 pages of the book discuss project planning followed by 120 pages discussing basic techniques of carpentry, plumbing, and wiring before going into the details of each of the projects. This makes sure the readers have a good foundation of general knowledge before embarking on the instructions and details of each project.

AS I said, I highly recommend this book along with its counterpart "The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair". These books have already helped my save a significant amount of money by allowing me to tackle some or the repair/improvement projects myself.

I recently purchased this book and was a bit disappointed with it. As a beginner, first-time homeowner, I was hoping that it would be a great source for "how-tos" on a lot of major home improvement/repair projects. The book does cover an insane number of different topics. In that regard, it probably is a great "reference" book for people who are not beginners in home improvement. However, for someone like me, I felt like devoting 1-2 pages on EVERY project a lot of times just was nowhere near enough information for me to confidently tackle the project. I mean, they even capped a roofing project (major) to 2 pages. I saw the Home Depot 1-2-3 books and they seem to provide a lot more depth and step by step instructions than this Black & Decker book, albiet with not as many topics.

I was looking to sound proof an outdoor shed so I could bang away on my drums without my neighbors threatening to kill me. It showed me step-by-step on how to create another wall with a 6" baseboard with staggered 2x4's, weaving the insulation through the studs, applying sound board, then applying dry wall. It also walked me through using the wall compound and tape to cover up the seams and drywall screws. This was only one project out of many. Well worth the price. I highly recommend this book.

The problem with books such as these is that they do not always provide enough detail to really help you get the job done. This results in your having to buy additional books to supplement your knowledge.

In my case, I am currently remodeling my kitchen. I have never done this kind of work before; BUT, I figure that I am reasonably bright so I can learn as I go, right? I purchsed this book as it seemed to provide just about the best general reference out there.

As I mentioned above, though, it does not always provide a great deal of detail. The section on hanging drywall, for example, does not cover the subject with enough depth to teach an amateur how to do it cleanly and neatly. You will likely have to buy a specific drywall book for more information. Ditto for the section on windows, laying tile, etc.

The one subject so far that did seem to contain enough detail to get the job done was the section on wiring. I was able to add several outlets (and I have never done this kind of thing before) with the aid of this book alone.

I give it 4 stars as it serves it's purpose (an overview on home renovation) admirably. If you really want to learn these things in detail, though, you may want to look at the Black and Decker "Complete" how to books. In fact, this book appears to be a kind of "greatest hits" of the single subject books. Wide, but not deep.

This book, amongst many books on home improvement, stands out as one of the best I've seen. This book starts from the basics, helping you to identify the type of construction your house has, and moving on to more detailed topics like plumbing, wiring, and so forth.

The bottom line: if you are handy with a hammer, but just don't know where to begin, reading this book would be a solid first step. Highly recommended.

I bought this book for my husband and he has found it very useful. We are refinishing our basement (siding, insulation, and the whole nine yards) now but the book has inspired him to do the kitchen and bathroom. We're going to work with tiles and the book is giving him some useful hints on how to do it. He also found the electrical section very useful.

The pictures on top of the instructions are probably what helped him the most. He's a very graphic person and looking at the pictures has been very useful.

We're new to home remodeling and we find this book to be an A++.

My husband and I are novice DIYers and purchased this book and its companion (Home Repair...in the gold cover which doesn't seem to be on Amazon right now, though we bought it with this book this past fall). We've found both books to be excellent. I agree with the other reviewer that the topics are covered in maybe 1-3 pages, but B&D has done an excellent job of keeping the writing tight and to the point, but also understandable. Additionally, the photography quality is excellent, making the photos very helpful and somewhat of a stand-in for more text. Highly recommended.