Some communities have “tool libraries” where you can borrow tools as well.
I just put
new homeowner courses -buyer
into Google and got some useful-looking hits on the first page, mixed with some others of course. (If you don’t include the -buyer, I discovered on the first try, you’ll get hits about buying houses, not about taking care of them.)
In addition to that, and the Lowe’s and Home Depot suggestions (one of which was on that first page), if you’ve got a local indy building supply brick and mortar it would be worth calling them. I’d also try community colleges; adding that to the search terms brought up a lot of hits.
(usually my google-fu is useless.)
Lowes and Home Depot offered free DIY classes. They probably stopped or went to Zoom during the pandemic.
It’s in their interest to support home DIY and sell the tools and materials.
I would check at the customer service counter.
This article was before covid.
Seems to me the risk is not in teaching the viewer to do something that’s legislatively prohibited (or highly restricted) in the viewer’s jurisdiction, but in potentially facing litigation if the viewer fucks it up. “You posted a video on how to replace a junction box, and my husband electrocuted himself, so now I’m suing you.” It’s really hard to enforce an assumption of indemnification when all somebody does is click Play on a video.
Yes, in Australia, the following repairs are illegal to do if you are not a licensed electrician:
To be fair, I have seen plugs heat up and melt, a fuse box self-destruct because of an improperly-inserted fuse, junction boxes explode, and metal appliances electrocute at a touch, not to mention loose live wires hanging from a wall and cords with frayed insulation…
Eh, I think electrical work, especially, gets a bad rap. As long as you’re not a dunce, follow safety precautions carefully, and have the ability to learn, how-to books and YouTube can turn you into a solid home electrician. I speak from experience.
Stay away from 220 circuits and the electrical panel, though, unless you really know what you’re doing.
(plumbing scares me more than electrical work)
mmm
Yes, as the voltage goes up, the stakes go up. Plenty of safety videos on YouTube with even semi-experienced or experienced electricians getting burned, killed or vaporized working on electrical panels.
Steam pipes, boilers, etc. can also kill you quickly especially once we move beyond the scale of what would be found in a home.
Other homeowner tips: don’t touch the asbestos…
I’ll do either, but I’m much more comfortable with electrical work. A friend of mine will happily try his hand at plumbing but won’t go near electrical work. Last time he mentioned that, my response was ‘at least when I flip the breaker back on and go upstairs, I don’t have to be worried about electricity pouring out all over the floor’.
Yes, I’m aware electrical work carries it’s own fun risks, but if I have to connect this pipe to that pipe, be it PVC or copper, you can bet it’ll leak the first few times.
Is that really the case? Just looking at my city’s website. It states that homeowners of single family dwellings can do their own plumbing work, but not their own electrical work. A nearby city (without digging into their ordinances) mentions that a homeowner can repair/replace things like light switches or fixtures, but their FAQs didn’t get into bigger electrical projects. However, that same city started allowing homeowners to do their own plumbing work just a few years ago. At least in part because a lot of residents essentially told the city they’re not paying a plumber for some minor job that they can do themselves (with no oversight). And with that, some even stated that they’d rather be able to pull a permit and have their work checked out by the city instead of winging it and hoping for the best.
In any case, I don’t know if it’s ‘most’ but plenty of jurisdictions don’t allow homeowners to do their own electrical or plumbing work. At least depending on scope of that work.
But the local fire department and your insurance company might figure it out after the fire.
That’s why I was specifically talking about hands-on courses with local instructors, not youtube. If my jurisdiction, for example, made it illegal do do your own electrical work, there’s not likely to be a lot of local people willing to teach classes on how to do your own electrical work. If for no other reason, there might not be a lot of demand for it.
Also, I assume (but it’s a big assumption) that teachers in those situations would be licensed in their trade. If this is something that could put their license (and livelihood) in jeopardy, they may not want to risk it.
Just a few months ago at my work we were having a HUGE project done that involved a ton of electrical work. The electrician had an apprentice with him. I shit you not, the first thing the apprentice did…he had been there for less then 10 minutes…was stick his screwdriver into a cutoff switch. It sparked, he jumped, looked at me and said “I guess I should have checked that first”. No shit. The electrician was annoyed with him.
And this was a cut off for some old three-phase evaporator defrosters. He’s lucky he just shorted it to the case and didn’t have his hand on the metal part of the screwdriver.
I learned to do carpentry and electrical work when we bought our first house. I seldom used Youtube for instruction. I used (and still use) the websites where the pros go - Fine Homebuilding, Contractor Talk, Electrician Talk, etc. I found that Youtube videos seldom discussed code issues. The pros are all about code. You need to know code to do almost anything. Want to do something as seemingly simple as installing a handrail on a staircase? You need to know how high the rail must be above the stairs, the acceptable cross section of the railing so that it’s grippable, the fact that it must be continuous (the user must be able to slide their hand along the rail from the top of the staircase to the bottom without ever having to lift their hand), that the rail must have returns so clothing can’t catch on the ends, and more. Forget about building a deck if you don’t know all of the code issues involved.
Thanks, everyone, for the responses. Too many to quote directly, but a few points/thoughts:
- I know quite well to stay away from 220V. Not going anywhere near anything involving those higher voltages.
- So far, it doesn’t look like our local Home Depots (no Lowe’s around here) have brought back in-store “classes,” but I will for sure be keeping an eye on them.
- It’s funny - YouTube is my first stop when it comes to diagnosing and repairing mechanical/electronic things, but for some reason basic carpentry (I’m thinking things like replacing baseboards and other trim - minor stuff like that) feels like the kind of thing I’d learn better by having someone looking over my shoulder. Maybe it’s just a personal hang-up I need to get over.
Baseboard is dead simple if you have a compound miter saw and a block plane. I can look over your shoulder.
Many, many years ago, I replaced an electric water heater simply because I could not afford the price of a new water heater and to pay a professional to install it. What might have taken an hour for a professional took me about six hours as I continued having to go back and fix my own errors. That also includes the times I simply walked away in order to cool down and come back to the project with a clear head. In addition to the proper tools, the professional will work much quicker and if there are any errors or complications they’ll take care of them.
But there are a lot of smaller projects that most homeowners should be perfectly capable of completing on their own. So long as you follow basic safety guidelines, changing a light fixture isn’t generally a complicated or dangerous task. I’ve replaced my own garbage disposal, installed ceiling fans, put in new lights, repaired a toilet, installed a new faucet, and a few other smaller projects. If I was actually going to rewire anything or do extensive plumbing I’d hire a professional. When I bought a new dishwasher I went ahead and paid to have them install it because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle. I’m thiking of getting some new flooring, and I’ll probably pay someone to do that as well simply because I don’t want to take the time to take care of it myself.
My experience on the risks of YT how-to’s is with airguns. Several competent-looking dismantling videos omit, through sneaky editing, and without mention, critical steps which can lead to serious injury to anyone following said videos.
I have zero reason to think such dangerous videos don’t inhabit every other how-to category, and a beginner cannot know that something was left out. So, I prefer to ask experienced people, on task-specific forums. There, evaluating source reliability is much easier than on YT.
An excellent point. I was assuming competence, and I shouldn’t have been.
This thread has inspired me to forget about DIY home repairs and move into DIY dentistry. Next up: The Homeowner’s Guide to Colonoscopy. Hey, what could go wrong?
FYI, Home Despot also has a how-to book for some common home repairs (One is how to solder copper pipe, that one is marked high on the difficulty scale). I got said book as a housewarming present. I should look through it again)
Brian
A few years ago when my son was in high school I was talking to the industrial arts/shop teacher about how when I was in 9th grade for 1 semester most (if not all) the boys would take a home ec class and learn kitchen basics, how to sew on a button/ fix a rip, laundry basics, etc… basically traditional “women’s stuff” The girls would take a shop class and learn how to check oil in a car, hand tool usage, etc… traditional “man’s stuff” that would be good skills to have as an adult, especially when living on your own. This was in the early 1980s. I was lamenting the disappearance of these classes as I thought it was a good idea. I guess the powers that be decided that it was sexist to classify these students by gender and offer these type of classes.
He told me that repeatedly he has offered to teach a “home ownership skills class”. Teach the kids minor wall repair, painting, basic electrical/plumbing knowledge (i.e. reset circuit breakers), how to sharpen a lawnmower blade/lawn care… School administration said “no room in the curriculum”. Okay, make it a volunteer class and teach it before/after school. Nope, that wasn’t going to work either. He said he had a bunch of interest in the class from both boys and girls.
I don’t wish to insult Kropotkin by making a “Head up yer ass”-type joke, so I won’t. 
I was fortunate to have a dad that was extremely handy. Could have built an entire house if left to it. I rarely remember ever seeing a contractor come to our house to repair anything. My dad usually did it all and I was the kid that got drafted to hold the flashlight and hand him tools. Over time things stuck. So while, I’m nowhere as competent as he was, I’m fairly good at home repair, enough that my wife is extremely impressed with me in comparison to my father in law.
I would also say that YouTube is extremely helpful, but you need some common sense as well. Certain jobs I just don’t want to do and will hire those out.