Home Repairs

Home Repairs BSA Supply No. 33247

Successfully completing this badge's requirements can lead to a lifetime of personal and financial rewards: Doing basic home repairs provides a sense of personal pride in one's achievements and increased self-confidence. In addition, safe and successful do-it-yourselfers can easily save a family thousands of dollars in repair bills over the years.

Requirements

1. Discuss general precautions related to home repairs. Name at least 10 safe practices that every home repairer should exercise.
2. Under the supervision of your merit badge counselor, do FOUR of the following:
   1. Maintain or recondition a garden tool and show that you know how to clean up and properly store it and other tools.
   2. Install insulation in an attic, wall, or crawl space.
   3. Caulk cracks or joints open to the weather.
   4. Waterproof a basement.
   5. Repair a break in a concrete or asphalt surface.
   6. Repair the screen in a window or door.
   7. Replace a pane of glass.
   8. Solder a broken wire or metal object.
3. Under the supervision of your merit badge counselor, do THREE of the following:
   1. Install or build equipment for storing tools.
   2. Build a workbench.
   3. Repair a piece of furniture.
   4. Paint or varnish a piece of furniture, a door, or trim on a house.
   5. Repair a sagging door or gate.
   6. Repair a loose step.
   7. Repair a fence.
4. Under the supervision of your merit badge counselor, do TWO of the following:
   1. Locate a main electrical switch box and know how to replace a fuse or reset a circuit breaker.
   2. Replace an electrical cord or repair a plug or lamp socket.
   3. Install a single-pole light switch.
   4. Replace an electrical wall outlet.
5. Under the supervision of your merit badge counselor, do TWO of the following:
   1. Clear a clogged drain or trap.
   2. Repair a leaky water faucet.
   3. Repair a flush toilet.
   4. Repair a leaky hose or connector.
   5. Clean or replace a sprinkler head.
6. Under the supervision of your merit badge counselor, do THREE of the following:
   1. Paint a wall or ceiling.
   2. Repair or replace damaged tile or linoleum.
   3. Install drapery or curtain rods and then hang drapes or curtains.
   4. Replace window blind cords.
   5. Repair or replace a window sash cord.
   6. Reinforce a picture frame.
   7. Mend an object made of china, glass, or pottery.

Resources

Scouting Materials

Electricity, Electronics, Fire Safety, Painting, Plumbing, and Woodwork merit badge pamphlets.

Books

• Better Homes and Gardens editors. Better Homes and Gardens Do-It-Yourself Home Repairs. Better Homes and Gardens Books, 1992.
• Black and Decker Home Improvement Library. The Complete Guide to Home Masonry. Creative Publishing International, 2000.
• ------. Refinishing and Finishing Wood. Creative Publishing International, 1994.
• Erickson, Larry, editor. Ortho's Home Improvement Encyclopedia. Meredith Books, 2000.
• Frank Cawood & Associates, eds. Fix It, Clean It and Make It Last: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Household Items Last Forever. Frank Cawood & Associates Publishing, 2000.
• Gladstone, Bernard. The Simon & Schuster Complete Guide to Home Repair and Maintenance. Simon & Schuster, 1991.
• Hamilton, Gene, and Katie Hamilton. Rodale's Fix It Fast, Fix It Right. Mjf Books, 1997.
• Manfredini, Lou, with Curtis Rist. Mr. Fix-It Introduces You to Your Home. Ballantine Books, 2002.
• McClintock, Mike. Home Book: The Ultimate Guide to Repairs and Improvements. Creative Homeowner Press, 2000.
• Popular Mechanics editors. Home How-To: Easy-to-Follow Step-by-Step Instructions With More Than 3,000 Color Illustrations and Photographs. William Morrow & Co., 2000.
• Reader's Digest editors. New Fix-It-Yourself Manual. Reader's Digest Association Inc., 1996.
• Sunset Home Repair Handbook. Sunset Publishing Co., 1999.
• Taunton Press editors. The Best of Fine Homebuilding Series includes books on doors, windows and skylights, builders' tools, and energy efficiency, to name a few.
• Time-Life Books. Time-Life Books Complete Fix-It-Yourself Manual. Prentice-Hall, 1989.
• ------. How Things Work in Your Home (and What to Do When They Don't). Henry Holt, 1987.
• Wing, Charles. The Book of Small Household Repairs. Reader's Digest, 1999.

Videos

Many home-repair videos are available. Besides finding some at your local public library, you can find them on the Web. For instance, at http://doityourself.com/store/homerepairvideos.htm, you will find videos on carpentry, plumbing, electrical projects, energy conservation, and painting and wallpapering, among others.

Organizations and Web Sites

Ask the Builder
Web site: http://askbuild.com

CornerHardware.com
P.O. Box 3964
Bellevue, WA 98004
Web site: http://www.cornerhardware.com/

Creative Homeowner Press
24 Park Way
P.O. Box 38
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458-0038
Web site: http://www.chp-publisher.com

DoItYourself.com
Web site: http://doityourself.com

Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20460
Web site: http://www.epa.gov

National Fire Protection Association
1 Batterymarch Park
P.O. Box 9101
Quincy, MA 02269-9101
Web site: http://www.nfpa.org/Codes/index.asp

This Old House Online
1185 Avenue of the Americas, 27th floor New York, NY 10036
Web site: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/

Toiletology 101
Web site: http://www.toiletology.com/index.shtml

Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
Laboratory and Testing Facilities
Corporate Headquarters
333 Pfingsten Road
Northbrook, IL 60062-2096
Web site: http://www.ul.com

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