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Page 18 2016 Fall Home Improvement LINCOLN DAILY NEWS SEPT. 27, 2016
Is the internet
really a good
resource for
home fix-it
information?
I
magine that you’re in your home and you
realize that something has gone wrong and
needs to be repaired. Perhaps the sink is
leaking somewhere, or the furnace just made a
mysterious noise you’ve never heard, or a light
is suddenly blinking a lot more than it used to.
Most homeowners have had a moment like this,
and said to themselves, “It can’t be that hard,
right? I might be able to fix that.”
There’s certainly nothing wrong with calling
on local contractors for help with improving
your home. They are the logical, and more
importantly, qualified people who make their
careers out of repairing and improving homes.
It’s also quite likely that you may be related
to at least one person who has knowledge of
home repair, or a friend that works in such an
industry, or both.
But those sources come with their own
inconveniences. Friends, family, and
contractors all come with the added stress
of time management. Will you need to
leave someone at home, just in case there
are questions, or someone needs an extra set
of hands? If you live in an area with few
contractors, what happens if there is a waiting
list? Perhaps the most important question; how
much is it going to cost, and is most of that cost
just for labor?
You might say to yourself, “I only need to fix
this one little thing, but I don’t know how, and
everyone else is busy. I can do this, ...uhm,
right?”
Fortunately, in today’s world, there is a resource
that most people have access to where they can
find out just how to adjust the pipes or take
apart the lawn mower, or whatever it is you
need to do: the Internet. But that comes with its
own set of questions that need to be discussed,
and its own risks.
When searching online for home repair advice,
your best bet is to find a source produced by
By Derek Hurley
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