With just a little trick and elbow grease, you can give your home a new look. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Our home speaks to us. We opened the refrigerator and it pleaded, "Wash it for me." The nail-protruding ceiling whispered, "Can't you do something?" The algae-coated siding said, "I know you can use a little elbow grease to do it." solve this problem."

Here are five home repairs to consider. From simple to a little challenging, they will keep you focused, help you save money, and let you walk through that newly restored project and say, "I did it."

To make cleaning the refrigerator easier, the most important thing you can do is not to let it run out of control. "When you see water droplets and puddles, wipe them off," said Carolyn Forte, director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Appliances and Cleaning Products Laboratory. Take inventory regularly and remove spoiled food as soon as possible.

Katie Sadler, Whirlpool's kitchen brand manager, recommends deep cleaning every six months. Ideally, this includes emptying the refrigerator and unplugging it or turning it off at the circuit breaker. Prepare a cooler to store perishable items, but as long as you don’t open it, your refrigerator should last for a while. Remove as many shelves and drawers as possible to allow them to reach room temperature, because washing cool materials with warm water can cause them to crack. Forte said that if you can't turn off the refrigerator or take out the trash cans and shelves, use cold water to wash them. Clean the parts with mild detergent and water, rinse thoroughly and wipe dry. For dirt that sticks to it, cover them with a warm, damp dish towel to soften them enough to wipe them off.

The USDA recommends not to use solvent cleaners or abrasives for cleaning because they may "let chemical fumes/flavors into your food and ice cubes, making them unsafe to eat". Mix 1 tablespoon of bleach with 1 gallon of water, then wipe the surface and leave the door open for 15 minutes to allow air to circulate.

As with the inside, simple soap and water is a good solution for the outside of the refrigerator. If it is stainless steel, you can use products specifically designed for electrical appliances. If you are using newer anti-fingerprint stainless steel, you should avoid using stainless steel appliance cleaner because it will damage the coating. For this type of surface, Sadler recommends using soapy water or even just a damp microfiber cloth. Non-stainless steel surfaces can also be treated with foaming water or multi-purpose spray cleaner.

Wipe the gasket to remove any debris, or use a vacuum attachment, then use a trusted cleaner and water.

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The space under the refrigerator is a black hole that can accommodate any small things that can slide in, not to mention dust. Cleaning it will improve the efficiency of the equipment. Use a vacuum hose or dust collector with attachments to complete the work.

If you are not sure where the smell comes from, check for spoiled food. If you find any, get rid of it. Otherwise, the United States Department of Agriculture has some other recommendations: wipe the interior with an equal amount of water and vinegar to eliminate mold. You can put some fresh coffee grounds or baking soda in the shallow container at the bottom of the refrigerator (and freezer). Soak a cotton swab in vanilla and put it in the refrigerator and freezer as an air freshener.

How to repair a corner of a broken concrete porch without replacing the entire porch?

One method is to apply a concrete patch by mixing a small amount of patch material, press it into a simple form, such as canned tuna, let it dry, and then determine whether the patch can be mixed well.

In order to make the concrete patch stick, you can usually brush with a concrete adhesive, a polymer similar to white glue, and then fill the gap with a mixture of Portland cement, sand and water.

For vertical patching, it is best to skip paint bonding adhesives and use patch materials containing Portland cement, sand and dry polymers. These materials are activated when water is added. Technical consultation hotline staff Steve Witowich said. Quiklet.

Some products are only sold in 20-pound drums or 50-pound bags, but the packaging of Quikrete FastSet Repair Mortar only weighs 3 pounds (Lowe's is $7.98).

For small projects, cheap plastic putty knives should work fine. Wear rubber gloves and safety glasses, and consider using a disposable respirator.

The polymer-modified patch material can be cured quickly, requiring only 10 to 20 minutes of working time. Therefore, before adding water, make sure that all preparations have been completed. Use a stiff brush to remove any loose particles, wash and rinse the concrete, then use plywood to assemble a simple template to support the lower edge of the patch while shaping the sides. First spray cooking oil on the wood to prevent the patch material from sticking, and then spread painter's tape or plastic to protect the surrounding bricks.

Follow the mixing instructions on the repair mortar. Avoid adding extra water, as this will weaken the patch.

After the patch material is mixed, it is pressed and carved into a smooth corner patch with a very rounded top edge. After 10 to 15 minutes, when the mixture has hardened, remove the template and smooth it on the lower edge. If you find any gaps, add a little mixture and smooth it out. You can also use a damp brush to gently texture the surface to make it more like the texture of nearby concrete. Follow the label's instructions for fogging or covering the area as the concrete cures.

Just as you might take a shower every day, it is wise to clean outdoor surfaces regularly. Once they start to look a little dim, or you see a very slight haze of algae or mold starting to gain the upper hand, it's time to take action.

Do not use high-pressure cleaners. These machines generate such high pressure that they can peel paint from wood; they can actually corrode wood fibers and can spray water behind the outer surface of your home, where water shouldn't be sprayed.

If you use a high-pressure cleaner to clean vinyl siding, when you get close to the vertical seams, corner posts, or windows or doors of the siding, you may force gallons of water to flow behind it. If you direct the water flow to the overlapping part or trim in the wrong way, the water can easily be blown behind the siding.

You can clean algae from almost every outdoor surface using liquid detergent and exterior cleaning brushes used to clean RVs. It has many bristles about 2.5 inches long and is very soft. They will not scratch car paint, so they can be safely used on your house siding, windows and all other surfaces. Use an ordinary brush with powerful bristles to clean any vertical or horizontal masonry surface algae.

Do not use chlorine bleach in cleaning solutions. Do not use any products that contain chlorine bleach. You can identify it by looking at the chemical name on the label: sodium hypochlorite. Chlorine bleach is toxic to all plants, trees, and flowers around your home.

When the top of the buffet table or countertop has serious cracks or large pieces, you may think that you should go directly to the countertop or stone company for repairs. But in fact, you can get pretty good results by using an epoxy-acrylic adhesive that roughly matches the stone.

Use an adhesive with putty-like consistency; it is easier to control than a free-flowing liquid.

Epoxy acrylic resin is a two-part formula: basic product plus activator. For epoxy acrylic resin, you only need a little activator, no more than 3%. The mixed activator starts timing; after that, you only have a short time until the material starts to harden. Especially if you want to reconnect a broken piece, the trick is to mix enough adhesive to stick the two pieces together.

On bbindustriesllc.com, a quart of Akemi Platinum 4 Knife Grade Epoxy Acrylate plus a tube of activator costs $40.95.

The basic epoxy-acrylic is dry and transparent, provides a seamless appearance when the two pieces fit tightly, and is usually a good choice when small turf needs to be filled. But for cracks that exceed the width of the hairline, you may need a colored adhesive, such as K-Bond polyester adhesive color paste (customized color kit $54.95) or a bottle of light yellow ($6.95 for 2 ounces). Mix the hue into the basic adhesive and add the activator only after you are satisfied with the color match.

After mixing the activator, you will have 5 to 15 minutes of working time. If you want to glue two pieces together, apply a thin layer on one piece, and then press the other piece tightly on it. If possible, clamp, or keep your hands pressed against the joints, but have an assistant ready so that when the mixture starts to harden but has not completely set, one of you can scrape off the excess adhesive. Scrape back and forth across the crack with a sharp blade, the blade being at right angles to the surface. This will gradually scrape off the patch so that it is flush with the stone.

The adhesive should fully cure within 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the temperature, the amount of activator used, and the amount of mixed materials.

In old houses where the roof is supported by trusses rather than rafters, there are often unrepairable nail bursts.

Because the bottom of the truss is usually covered with insulating material, and the top part next to the roof is not, the long part at the bottom will rise in winter and move down in summer. This phenomenon is called truss uplift. When this phenomenon occurs, the ceiling gypsum board nailed to the bottom of the truss must move up and down with the wood. Some nails are fixed; some are loose and appear as nails popping out.

You can install the crown molding as a permanent fixture to hide the nails close to the wall, but when there are only a few nails, there is a simpler solution. Simply pull out the nails and fill the holes with drywall joint compound. The ceiling will not collapse because even 50 years ago, builders installed ceiling plasterboard before covering the walls. The upper edge of the wall gypsum board supports the outer edge of the ceiling gypsum board.

If the nail pops out of the room further away, screw the 1¼-inch drywall screws into the ceiling frame about 6 inches on each side. You can use the stud detector to determine the position of the ceiling frame, or tap to see where the hollow sound turns into a pop. The roof frame is always perpendicular to the wall, but if you are not sure whether the components in the house are arranged side-to-side or front-to-back, please go outside and check the roof slope. The roof frame is always perpendicular to the peak.

It is important to tighten the screws so that the screw head will press into the paper covering and slightly dent the drywall, making the head slightly dent compared to the surrounding drywall. Setting the screws to the right depth is tricky, so even if you only need to screw a few screws, it’s worth buying a drywall pit drill. The number of recessed screw heads.

After the screw is in place, pull the ejected nail. Carefully pry open the plank or wide putty knife to avoid piercing the gypsum board. Cover the holes and new screw heads with drywall joint compound.

Let the drywall joints dry, and then smooth the surface with sandpaper or wet sponge. When the surface is dry, apply the primer, let it dry, and then apply the paint.

If your ceiling is matte, you can only repaint the repaired area without seeing the overlapping streaks of new paint and old paint. If your ceiling is brighter, you may need to repaint the entire surface for a uniform appearance.

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