Home repairs for beginners — 10 easy fixes you can do yourself

Most things that break at home are small. A washer that needs swapping, a screw that needs tightening, a hole that needs filling. The tools fit in a shoebox, and once you've done one of these fixes once it sticks with you for life. Here are ten fixes that cover most of it — without going anywhere near electrics, gas or anything that needs a licensed pro.

What you need before you start

You don't need a workshop. With this basic kit you'll handle every fix in the guide, and it costs under £80 / $100 if you're starting from scratch:

• A screwdriver with both Phillips (PH2) and flathead — the tool you'll use most.
• An adjustable spanner — for anything with nuts and couplings under the sink.
• Combination pliers — to hold, pull and cut.
• A utility knife (Stanley knife) with spare blades — for silicone, tape and cardboard.
• A silicone gun — the standard metal type, not the little tube.
• A putty knife in two widths (small + medium) and a tub of lightweight filler.
• Sandpaper (120 and 180 grit) — to smooth filler flat.
• A torch or head torch — under the sink and behind the toilet it's always dark.

Dripping tap

A dripping tap is almost always a worn washer or a tired ceramic cartridge inside the mixer. Both are cheap parts and take 20 minutes to swap.

• Turn off the water — either at the isolation valve under the sink/basin, or the main stopcock if there isn't one.
• Open the tap so the pressure releases.
• Unscrew the handle (often a small hex screw under a coloured cap) and lift off the mixer body.
• Take the cartridge or washer to a hardware shop — match it exactly, there are dozens of variants.
• Reassemble in reverse, open the water slowly and check for leaks around the base.

Squeaky or sticking door

Three common causes, three different fixes:

• Squeak from the hinges — a few drops of sewing-machine oil or silicone spray in each hinge, open and close the door ten times. Don't use cooking oil, it goes sticky.
• Door scraping the frame — look for where the paint's rubbed off. Usually tightening the hinge screws (which have worked loose over the years) is enough. If the screw hole is worn out, see "wobbly furniture" below — the same toothpick and wood-glue trick works.
• Lock sticking — use graphite powder (or grind a pencil lead) in the cylinder. Oil in a lock collects dust and makes it worse over time.

Loose toilet seat

Two screws underneath at the hinges hold the seat, and the plastic nuts loosen over time. Flip up the covers over the hinges, hand-tighten (or lightly with pliers — plastic breaks if you gorilla it). If it's still loose, the seat itself is worn and it's easiest to replace the whole thing — most toilets use standard sizes and a new seat costs about £20.

Hole in the wall (nail, screw, door handle)

Every wall gets holes. Size decides the method:

• Small hole (nail, thin screw) — press a little lightweight filler in with your finger, wipe off the excess with the putty knife, let it dry, sand lightly, paint over.
• Medium hole (door handle punched through, plug hole) — put a self-adhesive patch mesh over the hole, fill in two thin coats (let the first dry fully, ~2 hours), sand flat, paint.
• Big hole — cut a piece of plasterboard to fit, screw it to a batten behind, fill and sand as above. Takes an evening plus drying time.

Replacing silicone in the shower and kitchen

Dark streaks in a silicone bead are mould that's grown into the silicone itself — you can't scrub it out, only replace it. About an hour of active work plus a day of drying time.

• Cut the old silicone out with a utility knife along both edges. Pick out the remains with an old screwdriver or a silicone scraper.
• Clean with rubbing alcohol and let it dry completely — silicone won't stick to grease or water.
• Mask with painter's tape on both sides of the bead, ~3 mm gap.
• Cut the silicone tube's nozzle at an angle, a little thinner than you think. Better too thin than having to scrape off excess.
• Apply in one pass, smooth with a finger dipped in soapy water, pull the tape off straight away while the silicone is wet.
• Wait 24 hours before showering — even if the tube says 8. Half-cured silicone lets go.

Sealing a draughty window

Hold a lit candle (or the back of a wet hand) around the window on a windy day. Where the flame flickers or your skin feels cold, that's the draught. Two types of seal cover most of it:

• Rubber weather-strip (P- or D-profile) — self-adhesive, stuck to the frame where the sash meets it. Cut with scissors, press on, done.
• Foam strip — cheaper but wears out in a couple of years. Fine for windows you rarely open.

Wobbly furniture (IKEA and the like)

Before you buy new: retighten every screw. A chair or table loses tension after a few years, and ten minutes with a screwdriver gives a lot back.

If a screw hole spins without gripping — the classic "toothpick trick": break off a few toothpicks, dip in wood glue, push into the hole until it's full, wipe off the excess, let it dry for an hour, drive the screw back in. Holds for years.

Clogged sink or basin

Try mechanical first, chemistry as a last resort:

• A plunger — cover the overflow with a wet rag, pump vigorously 10–15 times.
• Still blocked? Clear the trap yourself: put a bucket underneath, unscrew the two nuts on the U-bend, empty the contents (it's gross, but the blockage is there 8 times out of 10), rinse, screw back together.
• Chemical drain unblocker only if the above fails, and avoid caustic soda in older houses — it eats old pipes.

When you should NOT do it yourself

A short, straight list. No scaremongering, but this is stuff where DIY ends badly:

• Anything behind sockets or in junction boxes — in-wall electrical work needs a licensed electrician in most countries.
• Gas — hobs, heaters, any built-in gas system.
• Load-bearing walls — even a large hole can affect the load path in older houses.
• A water leak inside a wall or ceiling — call a plumber immediately; the longer you wait the bigger the damage.
• Work on the roof or from a ladder above ~2 m — falls are the most common serious accident at home.
• Renovation in houses built before 1980 where you suspect asbestos (old floor adhesive, pipe insulation) — get it tested first.

How AI can help when something goes wrong

Sometimes you see something and don't even know what it's called well enough to Google it. That's where a vision AI helps: point the phone camera at the broken thing, describe what you're trying to do, and get step-by-step guidance based on what it's actually looking at. Good for "what kind of screw is this", "why is it dripping from here" or "is this normal wear".

On aifixly there's a home-fix expert you can call live. It won't replace a tradesperson for the big things, but for the ten fixes in this guide it's more than enough.