Try it yourself, common maintenance quick fixes

Oh no! Somethings gone wrong at the house your renting, before you pick up the phone and call your property manager why not try these simple tricks with common household items to fix the problem in minutes.

I’m sure you could imagine the amount of maintenance requests property managers get day to day this, added to the workload of suppliers, could mean you’ll be showering in a bath half full of water before the plumber gets to your drainage problem. And don’t forget if it’s your faulty appliance that trips the switch and the electrician gets called out, that electrical bill is going straight to you!

But don’t stress, here is a list of common maintenance enquires and how to fix the problem in a matter of minutes.

Blocked drains

You’ve noticed the sink taking a long time to drain lately, do you have bicarb soda and vinegar in the cupboard?

• Boil the kettle, pour the whole jug of water down the drain
• Place ½ cup of bicarb soda down the drain
• Add in 1 cup of vinegar, this will cause a reaction
• Put the plug in to keep the reaction below the surface and let this sit for 5-10 minutes
• Remove the plug and pour another jug of boiling water down the drain to flush it all away
• Hey presto, a quickly draining sink.

Appliance overload/ faulty appliance

The internet’s gone off, the kettle stopped boiling, is the power out? How come the lights are still working… Best case scenario you’ve had to many appliances running at once and once you flip the tripped switch back over on the meter board everything will be running smoothly again, here’s how to figure out what’s going on;

• Unplug EVERYTHING from the power points
• Flip the tripped switch back on
• Plug everything back in one at a time to determine the faulty appliance
• Dispose of the faulty appliance/ If there was no fault be mindful to not have so many items running at one time.

*Tip: Plug in a radio and turn it up loud, this way you will hear when the radio turns off and you’ll know which appliance tripped the switch.

Jammed keyhole

If your key isn’t going smoothly into the lock anymore or is having trouble turning, grab a grey lead pencil and try this trick:

• Rub a grey lead pencil on the key until it goes powdery
• Try the key in the lock and wiggle it around
• If this doesn’t work repeat the process until it loosens up.

Problem solved! Now wasn’t that easy. For more tips see related articles below and remember Baxton Property Management is always happy to help.

Written and syndicated by

– Baxton Media.

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