To wonder if there’s a need for basic home maintenance training

[butterybiscuitbasic]

Ok this is inspired by another thread, but there seems to be a basic lack of knowledge when it comes to basic home maintenance. Things like bleeding radiators, draining washing machines, preventing damp and the like.

I know when I moved into my first home it was my dad who showed me this type of stuff, so perhaps as we become more a nation of knowledge type workers these skills are being lost, or we are just more likely to assume problems and call someone in.

However I think it would be useful if these “skills” were perhaps covered in school, or even if letting agents/mortgage providers offered some sort of basic online training or manuals.

I am the owner so it doesn't matter if it falls into disrepair.

quite a sad way to look at things
It's your home, of course it should matter.

@DDIJ I don’t want to pry, but if you are the owner - why are you not allowed to do any repairs or let anyone in? Feel free to ignore if personal.

I might see if MN can edit my original post. I’ve said about ten times that this isn’t about schools

Why state that it would be useful if the skills were covered in school then? I am sure that there are already courses that cover the skills outside of schools if there is a demand for them.

@woodchuck99 oh ffs RTFT. There’s not a “demand” because people “don’t know what they don’t know”.

Why purposely ignore the second half of the actual sentence where I’ve suggested the letting agents or mortgage providers could offer the same thing? I’m not bashing schools in any way whatsoever.

"Is there a certain thing that you all do to prevent damp like?!?"

They will tell you not to dry clothes inside, but if you live in a flat and don't have a tumble dryer there is no other option.
I will probably be renting all my life so would never need these lessons.

If you have a simple radiator system, no lessons are required to bleed them, you just ask someone you know. With my setup now, if the radiator is bled, water has to be topped up somewhere else. I'm definitely not getting involved in something so complicated so that would be a job for the landlord.

God yes OP.
I am a woman on my own with kids for years I don’t know ANY ‘handy men’ and would always have to hire someone. Thank god for YouTube! I have had some disasters and I have taken on more than I should have (putting together a large unit that nearly fell and killed me)
I bought myself an electric screwdriver last year, I can pretty much sort a washing machine out by myself and took a bed apart by myself yesterday.

@DDIJ you have dc of your own and your mum has a say on who can enter your own house? That’s crazy and I think you need some real world support

It’s not too hard to top up a boiler it will be a tap underneath 👍🏻

OP - you say the things you mention should be the tenant's responsibility. What is this draining washing machine thing? My landlord has never asked me to do that. The washing machine in my flat belongs to the landlord.

Just stop when the water is in between the lines -

No wonder rents so high of they have to call maintenance people out all the time

How about people take responsibility for themselves instead of expecting schools to teach every single facet of how to run their lives and fucking Google/YouTube things?

Re the damp.
I was in a flat with storage heating and most of the flats got damp. I had my windows cracked open slightly all the time. if you have PVU windows, You can close a window back on itself where it is locked by the handle, but slightly cracked open. I also put those damp collector boxes around the worst areas and I cleaned the windows with a towel every single day if they got wet. A dehumidifier is a good investment

"t’s not too hard to top up a boiler it will be a tap underneath "

I'd rather not take the risk though. I don't think I'm insured if I do it wrong.
As I said, if it's simply a case of using the key and waiting until water comes out of the radiator, I can do that.
I will change light bulbs of course, but not light fittings.

I agree but also think it's a parental responsibility too. It would be useful for schools to also teach life skills, when I was at school there was Home Economics which covered a few things.

Both my parents use to show me how to do things, let me watch and explain what they are doing, giving me a chance to also do it.

"Is there a certain thing that you all do to prevent damp like?!?"

They will tell you not to dry clothes inside, but if you live in a flat and don't have a tumble dryer there is no other option.
You can still make sure there's some ventilation, put the heating on, not put the wet laundry directly on the radiator, and get a dehumidifier if it's too bad.
All unacceptable for some people unfortunately.

There are a lot of people who don't bother drying their laundry outside when they physically could 🤷

I am South East, it's a very damp country, it's not difficult to make a bit of an effort, you don't have to live with the windows wide opened all winter either.

@Gwenhwyfar

Someone has posted that their washing machine is broken
It’s not broken as such, all washing machines have a filter and if this is blocked the water can’t drain out. All washing machines have a drainage hole either at the front or back and you take out the filter and remove offending item - usually fixes it. Washing machines get clogged a lot, IMO this is a tenants responsibly to check the filter before declaring it ‘broken’ as if it’s blocked, it’s because something in a pocket wasn’t taken out before the wash, therefore - tenants fault

I completely agree with you OP. There's so many things I can't do and as you said it wouldn't even occur to me to google how to do X,Y,Z until the problem is obvious. I often muse what I'd do if my husband wasn't as capable as he is and if there was a course in common sense home maintenance I'd do it. I also think taxes, pensions and all things money should be taught in school.

Usually LL’s leave manuals for tenants for such occasions
I rent from a HA and they have responsibility for the boiler. No one should ever mess with gas or start taking the front panels off but you can get out a manual and see which one is the tap, fill up the boiler and no harm will come to any insured boiler

Pookie - I remember looking at this before and I don't think there are openable compartments in my machine except for the obvious ones. Would I be insured if I went with a screw driver and opened bits of the machine that I'm not supposed to? I think it would be much wiser to call the landlord.

I have had a blocked machine once and it was an item of clothing that got torn off something else therefore not my fault.

You don’t want water to come out of a radiator, you want air to come out. You would stop immediately if water came out! You turn it, it hisses, you stop turning it

Underneath the boiler will be some taps. You don’t need to take anything off it

It’s up to you, it’s a 10 second thing 🤷🏻‍♀️

I too think it should be taught at schools. I didn’t have a clue when I moved into my first flat 15 years ago and this was pre YouTube.

B&Q used to do evening lessons, don’t know if they still do.

"Usually LL’s leave manuals for tenants for such occasions"

I've never been given one and have rented all my life. All I've ever been given was a sheet of paper about legionnaires.

To be fair, a blocked drain is not the only reason a washing machine stops working!