5 home repairs to tackle yourself

Our homes speak to us. We open the fridge and it pleads, "Clean me." The ceiling with its protruding nails whispers, "Can't you do something about these?" The algae-coated siding says, "I know you can get this off with a little elbow grease."

Here are five home repairs to consider. From simple to somewhat challenging, they'll get you focused, help you save money, and let you walk past that newly fixed project and say, "I did it."

1. How to deep clean your refrigerator

The interior

The biggest thing you can do to make cleaning your refrigerator easier is don't let it get out of hand. "Wipe drips and puddles when you see them," says Carolyn Forte, director of the home appliances and cleaning products lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Do a regular inventory, and remove spoiled food as soon as possible.

Katie Sadler, kitchen brand manager at Whirlpool, recommends a deep cleaning every six months. Ideally, this involves emptying the refrigerator and unplugging it or turning it off at the circuit breaker. Have a cooler ready to store perishable items, though your freezer should be OK for a while as long as you don't open it. Remove as many shelves and drawers as you can and let them come to room temperature, as washing cool materials with warm water can cause them to crack. If you can't turn off the fridge or remove the bins and shelves, use cool water to wash them, Forte says. Wash the parts with a mild detergent and water, rinse thoroughly and wipe dry. For stuck-on messes, cover them with a warm, damp dish towel to soften them enough to be able to wipe off.

The USDA recommends against cleaning with solvent cleaning agents or abrasives, which can "allow chemical fumes/tastes into your food and ice cubes and make them unsafe to eat." Combine 1 tablespoon bleach with 1 gallon water, then wipe down the surfaces and leave the door open for 15 minutes to allow air circulation.

The exterior

As with the interior, simple soap and water is a fine solution for the outside of your fridge. If it is stainless steel, you can use a product specially formulated for appliances. If you have the newer fingerprint-resistant stainless, you should avoid using stainless appliance cleaner, as it can harm the coating. For this type of surface, Sadler recommends sudsy water or even just a damp microfiber cloth. Non-stainless surfaces can be treated with sudsy water, too, or an all-purpose spray cleaner.

Wipe the gaskets out to remove any debris, or use a vacuum attachment, and then go for that trusty detergent and water.

Underneath

The space under the fridge is a black hole for anything small that can slide under, not to mention dust, and cleaning it will lead to better appliance efficiency. Use a vacuum hose with an attachment or a duster to get the job done.

Odors

fI you're not sure where a smell is coming from, check for spoiled food. If you find any, get rid of it. Otherwise, the USDA has a few other suggestions: Wipe the interior with an equal mix of water and vinegar to destroy mildew. You can place some fresh coffee grounds or baking soda in a shallow container at the bottom of the refrigerator (and freezer). Soak a cotton swab in vanilla to place in the refrigerator and freezer as an air freshener.

2. How to repair the chipped corner of a concrete porch

How do you repair a corner of a concrete porch that has chipped off, without replacing the entire porch?

One way is to apply a concrete patch by mixing a small amount of patch material, pressing it into a simple form, such as a tuna can, letting it dry and then deciding whether the patch blends in well.

To get a concrete patch to stick, it's often possible to brush on a concrete bonding adhesive, a polymer similar to white glue, then fill the gap with a mixture of Portland cement, sand and water.

For a vertical patch, it’s better to skip the paint-on bonding adhesive and instead use a patch material that contains Portland cement, sand and dry polymers that are activated when water is added, said Steve Witowich, who staffs the technical-advice line for Quikrete.

Some products are sold only in 20-pound pails or 50-pound bags, but Quikrete FastSet Repair Mortar comes in packages of as little as 3 pounds ($7.98 at Lowe's).

For a small project, an inexpensive, plastic putty knife should work fine. Wear rubber gloves and safety glasses and consider using a disposable respirator.

Rig up a support

Polymer-modified patch materials are quick-curing, giving you only 10 to 20 minutes of working time. So before you add water, make sure all the prep is done. Use a stiff-bristle brush to dislodge any loose particles, wash and rinse the concrete, and rig up a simple form out of plywood to support the lower edge of the patch while you shape the sides. Spray the wood with cooking oil first to keep the patch material from clinging, and spread painter's tape or plastic to protect surrounding brick.

Follow the mixing directions on the repair mortar. Avoid adding extra water, because that will weaken the patch.

As soon as the patch material is mixed, press and sculpt it into a smooth corner patch that's nicely rounded on the top edge. After 10 to 15 minutes, when the mix is stiffening, remove the form and smooth over the lower edge. If you spot any voids, add a little bit of the mixture and smooth it over. You can also use a damp brush to lightly texture the surface, so it's more like that of the nearby concrete. Follow instructions on the label about misting or covering the area while the concrete cures.

3. How to remove algae from siding

Just as you probably shower each day, it's wise to wash outdoor surfaces on a regular basis. Once they start to look a little dingy or you see a very light haze of algae or mildew starting to take hold, it's time to take action.

Pressure washing is not your friend

Do not use a pressure washer. These machines generate such high pressure that they can peel the paint off wood; they can actually erode wood fibers, and they can squirt water behind the exterior surfaces of your home where water should not be.

If you clean vinyl siding with a pressure washer, you might be forcing gallons of water behind it when you get next to a vertical seam in the siding, at a corner post, or next to a window or door. If you aim the water stream the wrong way toward the overlap or the trim pieces, the water can easily be blown behind the siding.

Basic soap and bristles

You can get good success cleaning algae from just about every outdoor surface using liquid dish soap and an exterior cleaning brush that's made to clean RVs. It's got lots of bristles that are about 2½ inches long, and they're soft. They won't scratch automotive paint, so it's safe to use it on your house siding, windows and every other surface. Use a normal scrub brush with aggressive bristles to clean algae from any masonry surface either vertical or horizontal.

Do not use chlorine bleach in your cleaning solution. Do not use any product that contains chlorine bleach. You can identify this by looking for its chemical name on the label: sodium hypochlorite. Chlorine bleach is toxic to all the plants, trees and flowers around your home.

4. How to fix cracked marble

When the top of a buffet or countertop gets a serious crack or a chunk breaks off, you might think you should go straight to a countertop or stone company for repairs. But you can actually get reasonably good results by using an epoxy-acrylic adhesive tinted to approximately match the stone.

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

Epoxy-acrylics

Epoxy-acrylics are two-part formulas: the basic product plus an activator. With epoxy-acrylics, you need only a tiny bit of activator, no more than 3%. Mixing in the activator starts the clock ticking; after that, you have only a short window until the material starts to harden. Especially if you are trying to reattach a broken-off chunk, the trick is to mix just enough adhesive to hold the two pieces together.

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

Tinting and bonding

The basic epoxy-acrylic dries clear, which provides a seamless look when two pieces mate closely and is often a good option when small divots need to be filled. But for a crack more than a hairline wide, you might want a tinting adhesive, such as K-Bond Polyester Adhesive Color Paste ($54.95 for a customizable color kit) or a bottle of the Buff color ($6.95 for 2 ounces). Mix the tint into the basic adhesive and add the activator only once you are happy with the color match.

Once you mix in the activator, you'll have five to 15 minutes of working time. If you're bonding two pieces, spread a thin layer on one piece and press the other piece tightly to it. Clamp, if possible, or keep hand pressure on the joint, but have a helper at the ready, so one of you can scrape off excess adhesive as the mixture begins to harden but is not completely set. Scrape back and forth over the crack with a sharp razor blade held at a right angle to the surface. This will gradually shave off the patch, leaving it level with the stone.

The adhesive should be fully set in 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the temperature, how much activator you used and how much material you mixed.

5. How to stop nail pops

Nail pops that resist repair often occur in older homes with roofs supported by trusses, rather than rafters.

Because the bottom of the trusses are typically covered in insulation while the top pieces, next to the roof, are not, the long pieces at the bottom lift up in winter and move back down in summer. This phenomenon is called truss uplift, and when it occurs, the ceiling drywall nailed to the bottoms of the trusses has to move up and down with the wood. Some of the nails hold; some get loose and show up as nail pops.

Pull out nails

You could install crown molding as a permanent fix to hide nail pops close to the walls, but there is an easier solution when there are just a few nail pops. Simply pull out the nails and fill the holes with drywall joint compound. The ceiling won't cave in, because, even 50 years ago, builders installed ceiling drywall before they covered the walls. The upper edges of the wall drywall support the outside edges of the ceiling drywall.

Find the ceiling framing

If a nail pop appears farther into the room, screw 1¼-inch drywall screws into the ceiling framing about 6 inches on either side. You can determine where the ceiling framing is with a stud finder or by tapping to see where hollow sounds become thuds. Roof framing is always perpendicular to walls, but if you're not sure whether the pieces run side to side or front to back in your house, go outside and look at the roof slope. Roof framing is always perpendicular to the peak.

Set the screws

It's important to drive the screws so the heads press into the paper covering and dimple the drywall slightly, allowing the head to be slightly recessed in comparison to the surrounding drywall. It's tricky to set the screw at just the right depth, so even if you need to drive just a few screws, it's worth getting a drywall dimpler bit, which consists of a Phillips driver surrounded by a rim that recesses the screw head by the perfect amount.

Once the screws are in place, pull the nails that have popped. Take care to pry against a board or wide putty knife, so you don't punch through the drywall. Cover the holes and the new screw heads with drywall joint compound.

Let the drywall joint compound dry, then smooth over the surface with sandpaper or a damp sponge. When the surface is dry, brush on primer paint, let that dry, then top with paint.

If your ceilings are matte, you may be able to repaint just the areas you patched without seeing streaks where the new paint overlaps the old paint. If your ceilings are shinier, you might need to repaint the whole surface to get a uniform appearance.