My siblings and I always said that my father was good with absolutely NO TOOLS except for Duct Tape.  He was a master who could work wonders with duct tape and would fix things around the house small and large with the miracle tape.  If he had worn a tool belt, it would have had only different sizes and colors of duct tape… oh, yes, and maybe a can of WD-40.

Duct tape, sometimes mistakenly called Duck tape, is a great repair tool because of its flexibility and sturdiness.  My father would use it to seal leaky pipes or close openings around windows and doors to keep air conditioning in the house during the summer or heat inside during the winter.

He fixed drawers that were old and starting to become un-glued.  He would duct tape the areas on the inside and around the drawers where no one could see the glossy silver adhesive.  If there were wires that had to run from the outlet along a stretch of wall behind a couch or piece of furniture, he would take the wire into the creases, rather than use staples to keep the wires from becoming loose and dangerous.

Our attic was full of no-longer used things around the house including what had been our living room rug.  There that heavy thing was, rolled and tied up with duct tape on each end and the middle.  No rope would have worked as well as the duct tape.

Duct tape’s strength comes from the fact that it is made with three layers:

1. Top is soft, waterproof plastic;
2. Middle is a web of cloth fabric that adds durability; and
3. Bottom is a strong rubber-based adhesive

Johnson & Johnson invented Duct tape for the US military during WWII.  It was used as a waterproofing that could keep water out of ammunition cases.  It was clear that the tape was useful in repairing nearly any kind of rip or tear whether it was clothing or tents.  It could even be used to keep shoes dry.  Soldiers returned home knowing the many properties of this great tape and J&J began selling the product to everyone in the United States.  The product took off in part because it was great for sealing a home’s heating and cooling system’s ductwork.  So, you can say duck tape because of its waterproof qualities or duct tape because of one of its earliest and best uses in the house was for fixing ductwork.

A big reason why duct tape is so useful and popular is that it is, almost illogically, so strong and yet can be torn easily by any member of the family young and old.  So I will strap on my father’s old tool belt and fill ‘er up with duct tapes of all colors and stripes and look for the many household repairs that duct tape is perfect for.

Our automatic garage door would not close and I was sure that the track had been dented or the bolts had loosened.  That seemed to be the only way to explain how the door would begin to close and the garage door would come within 6 inches of the ground before it would catch, stop its decent and then start back up and open. 

This is a minor inconvenience until you are racing to work in the morning and you pull out of the garage and in your view mirror you see the door shutting… until it stops and opens up, essentially leaving your house open to anyone who wants to come in the usually un-locked side door.

I am not the most handy DIY home maintenance-type but  I tried a few things by poking around and imagined having to call the garage repairman before I thought I would give good ole WD-40 a shot.  A couple of sprays on the garage door’s wheels and the track was all that was needed.  It’s been days now and all is well.  This was just another of the many successes for WD-40.   There are thousands of uses for WD-40 all over the house, indoor and out.  Some of the garage uses that have been described on the wd40 website include:

Any time is a good time to perform an easy DIY Electrical Safety Audit.  The more entertainment systems, computers and kitchen top appliances taking up more electrical outlet space and electricity, the more important it becomes to periodically step back and do a full house inspection.

We sometimes take for granted our electrical products and most certainly forget the potential fire hazards that faulty wiring or an overloaded system can cause.  The numbers are staggering and worth getting a bit frightened about.  

In homes with forced-air heat, indoor air becomes very dry without a duct-mounted humidifier, so they're a pretty common accessory with minimal but important maintenance needs.  Most homeowners know that the humidifier water panel needs to be replaced every heating season.  But what happens if you forget to replace the water panel?

We recently found out.  I went down into the basement to get some tools and noticed water on the floor near the basement air handler.  Since it hadn’t rained recently (and our basement doesn’t get wet from rainstorms) I figured that something had to be going on with the humidifier waste pump, humidifier itself or (worst case) the air handler’s heating coil which passes air over a hot water coil from the boiler.