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'About The House' Covers Home Owner Projects and Repairs - 2007-05-26 |
I read a lot of books on real estate related topics every year, and most of them are only marginally useful. Many are written by experienced writers who don't truly understand the topic, but get published anyway. Others are written by knowledgeable authors, but their lack of writing skills makes their book hard to use or difficult to read.
But this week I am happy to report on a new book that I can recommend for every homeowner.
It's called "About The House: How to Maintain, Repair, Upgrade and Enjoy Your Home," and it is written by Henri deMarne. After reading the book, I believe it would make a good gift for any housewarming party, especially for a first-time buyer.
The book is a manual for almost any household task an owner might encounter, and represents a thorough education in the physical elements of any house.
The author starts off with an examination of the foundation and basement, giving tips for preventing mold and mildew through moisture control. He covers foundation repairs and also gives ideas for preventing foundation settlement problems before they occur.
He then moves on to roofs and siding, giving good advice on venting your attic to maximize roof shingle life. As an example of how thorough this book is, he even covers the obsolete asbestos roofing shingle, no longer in production today, but still in service on a number of homes in the Atlanta area. This level of detail serves the reader well.
In the siding chapter, deMarne answers questions about all common siding materials, including stucco. While many buyers have been told to avoid synthetic stucco homes because of past problems, this book gives the popular siding material a fair examination, pointing out that properly installed and flashed synthetic stucco is, in fact, a durable and effective exterior surface.
The section on windows gives good information on how to control moisture problems and cold air leaks, but seems to have a northern orientation, with references to snow jams and ice that we seldom experience in Georgia. Even so, the tips are worthwhile.
The next section to be covered is plumbing, electric and HVAC, and should be required reading for any homeowner. Using a question and answer format, the book covers everything from "on-demand" water heaters (he says they are still too expensive) to septic tanks.
In the electrical section, I learned that any house with circuit breakers needs to have those breakers "exercised" by flipping them on and off a dozen times at least once yearly to keep them free of debris and operating properly, and that the same goes for GFCI outlets in bathrooms and kitchens.
And while the book's details on oil-fired furnaces is unlikely to help many Georgians, it also goes into detail on natural gas heating systems and
electric central air conditioning, both much more common in our climate.
The author correctly recognizes that kitchens and baths are not only the most costly rooms in the house, but also the areas most likely to make a house sell quickly if made attractive.
Again, the chapter is thorough and informative, and is filled with tips and short-cuts. For example, the book recommends cleaning tough stains from a stainless steel sink with WD40 lubricant. I tried it, and it works.
I was also pleased to see that the section on baths spends a fair amount of time on the problems associated with excess moisture - a common condition, especially in older homes.
The author rounds out the book with chapters on interior surfaces and insulation, and gives appropriate importance to energy conservation, stressing the resulting savings in utility costs.
The most unusual part of this book is the chapter called "Critters, Pests and other Nuisances." Among others, the author covers how to overcome ants and termites, wasps and yellow jackets, squirrels and chipmunks, and birds and bats.
Interestingly, the book fails to mention the yellow jacket solution employed by a man in my childhood neighborhood. Mr. Pittman would routinely pour gallons of gasoline down the yellow jacket hole, then throw lit matches at the nest to enjoy the explosion. This remedy failed to exterminate the bees, but was a lot of fun to watch from a distance.
Anyone who has ever owned a home knows that everything outdoors wants to come indoors at one time or another, and deMarne covers strategies for keeping your home critter-free. At first, I missed his advice on controlling spiders, but in a re-read learned that he suggests 409 Cleaner as a pesticide. I can hardly wait to find our next spider visitor so I can give this a try.
On my scale of 1 to 10, I give "About The House" a solid 9 for Georgia homeowners. It carries a list price of $16.95, but I found it at several online book stores for less than $12. This book is a welcome addition to my real estate library.
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