Home repair help
 

I’m in the process of buying my first house, being that I live in the Bay Area the cost of the house is damn high, leaving me with having to do as much of the repairs/work I can to save some money. I’m a fairly handy guy but have no training in construction or carpentry. Can anyone suggest a good book that would cover a lot of home repairs? I’ve looked at a few and the Black and Decker books seem to be pretty good and well laid out. The thing about those is that they mostly deal with one subject per book while others such as the Home Depot book to home repair seems to cover a lot more for one price. Thanks in advance all!

My parents own a few rental properties and do all the work themselves. When they first started about ten years ago they bought these how-to books from Home Depot. They are very easy to follow. Here is a link.

You will want the ones from Home Depot Publishing.

Reader's Digest also has a fairly good book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0895...47#reader-link

Additionally, subscribing to magazines like This Old House will be helpful.

Go to the bookstore and look at all the home improvement books there. I was at Borders the other day and there were a ton of "do it yourself" books. Some covered a little about every topic, and others were more specific...in-depth about electrical, plumbing, etc.

The Home Depot book is pretty good and cover a lot of topics. I would recommend that one

I picked up the Home Depot one, looks good. I'll let ya all know when I chop my first finger off :)

Being a Pro, I never had much use for DIY books. I have to admit, althogh reluctantly, those Home Depot books are pretty good in that they don't treat you like an idiot but they don't talk over your head.

If you have the time, consider joining Habitat for Humanity and performing some volunteer work. Not only does it give you the warm and fuzzies, but the hands-on experience they provide with building all aspects of a house directly applies to home improvement.

Plus you get to practice on somebody else's house!