It can be an all-too-common winter conundrum: frozen pipes. If left for too long, these pipes can burst, causing a major fiasco.
Before you start: open the faucet closest to the pipe, if possible. If it’s frozen too, don’t force it.
Wrap a towel around the frozen pipe. Secure it with duct tape. Gently pour warm water over the towel, repeating until the frozen water in the pipe thaws.
If that doesn’t work, resort to an electrical device. Important: make sure there is no standing water by the pipe before doing this. If there’s no standing water, you’re safe to use a small device such as a hair dryer, a heating pad, or a small heat lamp to thaw the water in the pipe.
Holes or Cracks In Walls
If you’ve got a small hole in your wall, it can be easily fixed in just a few steps.
Prepare the area. Use sandpaper, or a putty knife, to remove any loose plaster.
For cracks: spackle. With a putty knife, generously smear the crack with joint compound (available at hardware stores). Let it the spackle dry, then give it another smear. When that layer dries, use sandpaper to smooth the surface before you repaint.
For holes:patch. Use an adhesive repair patch with a reinforced metal center (these are also widely available at hardware stores and home improvement centers). Trim the patch so that it fits over the hole, then use a putty knife and smear joint compound over both the patch and the hole. Let it dry, smooth it with sandpaper, and repeat as many times as necessary to get a flat surface.
Apply touch-up paint to match the rest of the wall. And voila! You’ve repaired the wall!
You may not – and indeed, should not – be able to do absolutely everything in the way of household repairs. Some things, after all, are better left to professionals. But you can definitely save yourself some money, and gain some pride (and possibly admiration from your significant other) in the meantime, by doing things yourself.