How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home

How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home
by Charlie Wing

How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home
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Book Summary Information

Author: Charlie Wing
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-06-30
ISBN: 0876290152
Number of pages: 152
Publisher: R.S. Means Company

Book Reviews of How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home

Book Review: Wonderful large diagrams. For newbies OR as supplement to DIY books
Summary: 5 Stars

Buy this book for the diagrams, OR as an introductory book for newbies. This book consists mainly of diagrams -- very large, clear, detailed diagrams that show how a house works.

We own several books on home maintenance, repair, and home improvement. Those other books offer much more advice on repairs and improvement, but the diagrams and photos are often inadequate -- not enough diagrams/photos, or not clear enough, or not labeled and explained enough. This book is the opposite of that; it has wonderful diagrams, with arrows and labels for the parts, plus brief text explanations and hints. This book has the best diagrams, so we use it as a supplement to the other books.

The book includes some "how to" information for basic maintenance and common, easy repairs. However, it is not a comprehensive manual for DIY home repair and improvement. For DIY, you will want to buy additional books for more depth.

I was pleasantly surprised at what diagrams were included in the book. For example, there are 6 pages of water heater diagrams, for 6 types of water heaters -- electric (tank), gas (tank), electric tankless, gas tankless, BoilerMate(Trademark) water heater, and solar water heater.

Diagrams showing major appliances are also included -- refrigerators, dishwashers, laundry washers, dryers, air conditioners, ranges, ovens, garbage disposal, vacuums. The clothes washer diagrams just show a belt-driven top-loader machine. No diagrams of the newer front-loading type.

The index is not bad; it could be improved by adding more terms. For example it has an entry for "evaporative coolers", but not for "swamp coolers".

Summary of How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home

Why is my faucet leaking, my toilet running, or my dishwasher refusing to start? Can I fix it myself? What's causing the heating system to smell bad or the foundation to crack? Do I need an air filtration system? Is the new "engineered lumber" as good as conventional wood? These are just a few examples of questions homeowners face when repairs are needed, or when a new house or addition is being planned.

There's no question that it pays to be an informed consumer. Knowledge of your home's systems helps you control repair and construction costs and make sure the correct elements are being installed or replaced.

This book uncovers the mysteries behind just about every major appliance and building element in your house. Clear, "exploded" drawings show you exactly how these things should be put together and how they function ?  what to check if they don't work, and what you can do that might save you having to call in a professional.

The easy-to-understand pictures and explanations on every page get right to the point, helping you understand how things work, what can go wrong, and how to trouble-shoot a problem.

FEATURES:

Virtually everything in your house is included:

  • Electrical ? circuit breakers and grounding, service, outlets, lamps and fixtures.
  • Heating and air conditioning ? gas, electrical and oil - ductwork and piping, thermostats, central and window AC units, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, and air filtering systems.
  • Plumbing ? kitchen and bath fixtures, piping, water heaters, traps and vents, septic tanks, pumps and water softener systems ? even sprinkler systems and swimming pool filters/heaters.
  • Major household appliances ? from kitchen to laundry.
  • Foundation, framing, doors and windows ? including issues like drainage and radon, types of framing and how it supports the house, and all types of doors and windows.

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