Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable intro book... to detailed books in rest of series, September 27, 2004
As a first time homeowner last year I didn't have a good sense of maintanence items and remodeling options. I picked this book up after looking at several competing home repair manuals at Home Depot.
The book is very "user friendly" for the new home owner. The book is well organization, offers wide coverage, and is based around photos. The sections are color coded by topic like plumbing, painting, electrical so that you can find your project quickly. Once in the general category the book covers numerous related projects, which allows you to consider whether related projects are also important. Both finding your project and considering related projects are vastly helped by all the pictures. The writers/editors have tried to have pictures (that are all in color) for every major stage of a project, which makes evaluating each project much easier (competing home repair manuals are more texted base with fewer color photos).
These three attributes can lead to "project spillovers" - you find related topics quickly. For example, I was interested in what was required to replace/repair roofing shingles and found on nearby pages how to install vent collars on the roof, which made me realize that I was missing collars on my house. Installing a collar turned out to stop the source of a small leak. I may have never noticed this (or taken longer to notice this) without the user friendliness of the Home Depot guide.
The user friendliness is also the source of its weaknesses. They try to squeeze each project onto one or two pages, which does not allow much detail. Also, the starting point for each project is the interior of new construction - open walls, easy access to services - so no guidance on getting your project to such an open setting if you are not dealing with new construction.
Overall, this book is not meant as the only book you'll ever need on home repair. Rather Home Depot has taken a "modular" approach: it is a great intro reference that leads into Home Depot's other related more detailed books on specific topics like "Kitchens and Bathrooms 1-2-3", "Flooring 1-2-3", "Wiring 1-2-3", etc. that are also similarly user friendly. After using this book for general issues, you can buy the more detailed books for topics that you need more depth.
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113 of 127 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not What I'd Hoped It Would Be, February 9, 2004
Very disappointed with the almost complete abscence of "expert advice" being offered by the "Editors at Home Depot" in this purported reference book, so I'm returning it the next time I'm in the store.
Almost every subject area I looked at was as far from "expert advice" as it's possible to get -- unless you consider "drill a hole in the wall and drag your [cable, wire, pipe, etc.] through it" to be a revelation of cosmic proportions. The "editors" seemed to be more concerned with how many flashy pictures and other garbage they could squeeze onto every page, instead of focusing on the technical aspects of the job.
Take "Telephone Wiring" on pages 213 and 214 for example, which in essence says nothing more than "Connect your phone to the wires."
Well, yeah, no duh! How about telling us which wires go to what posts, and how we can tell if they're "live" or "dead", and what the voltages should normally be, and how to hook a voltmeter to the wires to tell if the circuit is wired correctly, and how to connect the wires so they'll pass through to other phones in the house, and what to do if they don't work after you've connected them, and... well, the list of what you REALLY need to know is why you'd buy a book like this in the first place, isn't it? And their advice for "Thermostat" on pages 219-220 is just as bad, if not worse -- "Contact a dealer for repairs." Sheesh!
Save your money. Look elsewhere for a home maintenance and repair guide, because these guys are operating without a clue.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Home Improvement Book, September 13, 1999
By A Customer
This is an excellent home improvement book that any person should have if they are thinking of doing home improvements. The skill gauge tells you what level of skills you should have before starting a project so you don't get in over you head. There are safety alerts, trip savers (great for people like me who usually make about 3 or 4 trips to the store for one project) and it even tells you how long you can expect to work on a project depending on your skill set. This book is a must for anyone who does or wants to do home improvements.
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