Do it yourself — and know when not to
Real instructions for jobs people take on at the weekend, written by the crews who get called when it goes sideways. Every one tells you plainly where to stop.
How to replace a kitchen faucet
Shut off both supply valves under the sink, disconnect the supply lines and the mounting nut, lift the old faucet out, set the new one, and reconnect. Budget two hours for a first attempt — the hard part is not the plumbing, it is working upside down in a cabinet with no room for your shoulders.
Read the guide →How to fix a toilet that keeps running
It is almost always one of two cheap parts: the flapper is not sealing, or the fill valve is set too high or has failed. Lift the tank lid and look — if water is spilling into the overflow tube, it is the fill valve; if the tank is slowly draining with no visible overflow, it is the flapper. Both are under $20 and take about twenty minutes.
Read the guide →How to unclog a drain without chemicals
Clean the pop-up stopper first — in a bathroom sink it is the cause about half the time — then plunge, then open the P-trap under the sink. Skip the caustic drain cleaner entirely: it rarely clears a real blockage, it damages older pipes, and it makes the job hazardous for whoever eventually opens that line.
Read the guide →How to replace a thermostat
Usually yes, in about an hour. Kill the power at the breaker, photograph the existing wiring before you disconnect anything, label each wire by the terminal letter it came off, then wire the new one to match. The one thing that stops most people is a missing C wire, which many smart thermostats need.
Read the guide →What to do when a breaker keeps tripping
Reset it once, properly: push the handle fully to OFF first, then back to ON. If it holds, unplug everything on that circuit and add loads back one at a time to find the culprit. If it trips again immediately with nothing plugged in, stop — that is a fault in the wiring and it is the one scenario here where you should not keep trying.
Read the guide →What to do in the first hour of a water leak
Shut off the water at the main. If the water is anywhere near outlets, a panel or hardwired equipment, kill the power to that area at the breaker before you walk in it. Then photograph everything before you move anything, and start moving air. The first hour decides most of what this ends up costing.
Read the guide →Why we publish these
We would rather you fixed the easy ones yourself
Nobody wants to pay a call-out charge to have somebody reset a breaker or swap a flapper. Those jobs are genuinely straightforward and the guides here will get you through them.
What we do want is for you to know the difference between the jobs that are fine and the ones where carrying on turns a small bill into a large one — a seized shut-off valve, a warm outlet, water that has already been in the ceiling. Every guide says where that line is.
M&R has worked in the Four Corners since 1954. If you hit the line, we are on the other side of it.
Started it and had enough?
Half of what we do is finishing jobs somebody else began. No judgement.