Customer Reviews

Home Maintenance for Dummies

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a GREAT book for first-time buyers or for people who never learned what should be done to your home to keep it in good shape.

The book is well organized and has two main sections, indoor maintenance and outdoor maintenance. The book also includes nice graphical guides for those of us (me!) that need more than your basic instructions. Another great feature of the book are montly to-do's, to keep you on track throughout the year.

However, by far, the best thing about the book is it has saved me money! There are things outlined in the book that I thought I would have to pay someone to do, but realized how simple they really were and was able to do them myself!

Having purchased my first house last year, I thought this book would be great with dealing with the problems that arise when living in a house. I'm very disappointed with it though.

Some examples:
It has a whole section on plumbing fixtures, going in to detail about how to clean a faucet. But it doesn't mention a word about how to deal with a dripping faucet! I'd think this would be a pretty basic thing to add to a book... you can't expect that people buying this book would automatically know how to replace a washer.

It goes into detail about fireplaces and how to maintain a fireplace. Except it fails to mention gas fireplaces at all. As far as the book is concerned, they don't even exist. Am I supposed to clean it the same way as a normal fireplace? Do I have to worry about cleaning the chimney if its a vented fireplace? What yearly maintainance and safety precautions must I consider? Help me out a bit here people...

Yet the book seems to have plenty of time to go over landscape irrigation and swimming pool maintainance, which, although perhaps useful, seem to be more appropriate in one of their other books; e.g. "Landscaping for Dummies".

Overall, the book could be considered "a good start". But given what the book is lacking, I think most customers would be better off borrowing it from the library for free...

WOW! Who knew all the maintenance a house needs? The cleaning solution recipes are great, safe, and really do the best job. I have been slowly implementing a home maintenance program based solely on this book. It is easy to read and understand. Whether you are a novice or expert in taking care of your home and its appliances, you will learn alot from this book. It is not just about proper cleaning. It is about keeping your house and appliances looking their best and in working order for as long as possible. I give this book as a housewarming gift to all my friends who own a home.

The authors assume way too much reader knowledge for this to be a true guide for dummies. Also, the For Dummies format does not allow for much illustration. So a lot of what they describe goes way over my head. It does help me understand what I need to say when I call a pro. That's actually a big help for one as home-maintenance-challenged as I. Don Aslett's excellent books are more my speed, though he does tend to write the same book over and over again.

I purchased this book along with two other home maintenance and repair books because I am a new homeowner and would like to be on top of my game. I also bought it because I was really concerned about how deeply technical the other two books would get and I knew this would give me a good foundation. This book is good because it breaks down a home into it's various systems and gives you a good general overview of how each of them work and what they're comprised of. The best part about this book, in my opinion, is the Home Maintenance Schedule and Checklist. It gives you a good description of what needs to be done when and you can refer to the book for instruction if necessary. I imagine this book will be instrumental in keeping my home in great condition through the years.

The chapters are organized by area of the house (outside, inside, appliances, etc.) and really pack a good amount of advice and tips in each. As another reviewer said, there are recipes for your own cleaning solutions (deck cleaners, floor cleaners) that work really well (our deck was in rough shape). The maintenance schedule in the back is also handy. This was our first home and having this book was such a help. I've read it and keep referring to it!

This book tries to cover everything on home maintenance and ultimately fails to adequately explain in detail the things you might really use.

Take, for example, insulating an attic space. It's covered, but only very briefly. I ended up using various websites that had more detail and were more helpful when I took up that project.

There's an entire chapter on pools and spas, an entire chapter on decks, and several others that seem to be a bit more specialized. That's not a problem; the problem is that the general home stuff that almost any homeowner would need (e.g. plumming or HVAC or normal repairs) get less treatment.

I have no doubt the authors would be able to repair just about anything in most houses. But their book, supposedly for idiots, glazes over far too many normal repairs without enough detail for us idiots to actually be able to use this book.

There are some helpful tidbits in here, and if you already have a collection of DIY type home repair books, this might make a good addition. But if you're looking for a good general home repair book to help you with most normal home repair projects - this isn't it.

We have been living in our current home for over 20 years but I purchased this book for my husband anyway as he is a big fan of the Carey Brothers. He absolutely loves it from the do it yourself cleaning solutions to the home maintence checklist. So whether you are a first time homeowner or have owned your home for 20 years like us this book is must have.

Home Maintenance for Dummies is the best Dummy book ever. I have no aptitude for home maintenance and yet this book clearly explained matters in a way even I could understand. Well done!

It's easy enough to find instructions on how to do anything on the net. But there's no way to know whether the author knows what he or she is talking about.
When it comes to my home, I want something more authoritative.

Things don't get more "authoritativer" than James and Morris Carey on home
maintenance issues. As authors, broadcasters and contractors, they've seen the
issues Do-It-Yourselfers like me face every day.

No one can know everything, and, if we're honest, we embrace our Dummy-ness when
it shows up. In my own case, my electrical skills might not be too bad, but plumbing and painting are fields about which I know nothing -- and it shows in my work.

Like most homeowners, I'm inclined to do a job, then plan it, then do it again. The Careys do their best to urge us to do better, with the mantra "Plan, Plan, Plan."

While the book is designed as a reference one uses as needed, I found that nearly every page taught me something about this important field.

There's no way that a book with chapters on, say, plumbing, will be able to treat plumbing as deeply as a single-subject text. But my home never limits itself to single-subject problems, so something broad is usually what I need.

I unhesitatingly recommend "Home Maintenance for Dummies" by Morris and James
Carey.