How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home
I bought this and two other “visual guide to your new home” books from Amazon. This book is by far the best of the lot. I can’t say enough good things about it.
Here’s why:
1. CURRENCY AND COVERAGE. Published in 2007, it’s the most current title, and covers modern home fixtures better than the others. It’s also very comprehensive in it’s coverage
2. QUALITY. The diagrams and cutaways are highly detailed, and the best that I’ve seen – they’re also full color, compared to the black and white in other books.
3. CLARITY AND ORGANIZATION. The explanations are straightforward and insight, with just enough detail to understand home systems.
4. TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS. Every topic includes a sidebar containing “Before hiring a professional” troubleshooting tips.
They explain the 2 to 3 most likely problems with the system, along with the solutions. I just used this book to troubleshoot our malfunctioning garbage disposal. The troubleshooting tip was 100% right. I made the fix in 2 minutes and saved $180 on the cost of replacing the disposal.
The book just paid for itself 10 times over. I have 30 books on home building. This one has a special place on my bookshelf. If you own a house, buy this book. You’ll thank me the first time you have the satisfaction of filing something that goes wrong!
More information at How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home
