Rating: 
Summary: Home Improvement A to Z
Review: Best book I've found for home improvement as opposed to home repair. Covers all the important projects with detailed, simple to understand explanations and photos or drawings to make sure you understand how to do it! Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Great book for the handyman
Review: I bought this book for my husband and he has found it very useful. We are refinishing our basement (siding, insulation, and the whole nine yards) now but the book has inspired him to do the kitchen and bathroom. We're going to work with tiles and the book is giving him some useful hints on how to do it. He also found the electrical section very useful.
The pictures on top of the instructions are probably what helped him the most. He's a very graphic person and looking at the pictures has been very useful.
We're new to home remodeling and we find this book to be an A++.
Rating: 
Summary: A New Homeowner's Bible
Review: I bought this book just before purchasing my first home. It provided me with the information I needed to make successful improvements to my home. Within a week after purchasing my house, I was installing new flooring, toilets, sinks, faucets, electrical outlets and switches, and light fixtures. These are things that I had NEVER done, but was able to do successfully with the help of this book. If you do get this book, I also strongly recommend the Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Repair as a companion. There is some overlap between the two books, but there are important pieces that are exclusive to each. Best wishes with your project!
Rating:
Summary: A New Homeowner's Bible
Review: I bought this book just before purchasing my first home. It provided me with the information I needed to make successful improvements to my home. Within a week after purchasing my house, I was installing new flooring, toilets, sinks, faucets, electrical outlets and switches, and light fixtures. These are things that I had NEVER done, but was able to do successfully with the help of this book. If you do get this book, I also strongly recommend the Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Repair as a companion. There is some overlap between the two books, but there are important pieces that are exclusive to each. Best wishes with your project!
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference Book!
Review: The B&D Home Improvement book is the core of my home improvement library. I reviewed other home improvement books at Home Depot, but liked B&D's books. I also own the B&D Home Repair and B&D Bathrooms books. The three books use many of the same pictures, but I do not regret buying any of them. I prefer this book over the others because the projects it covers are things I would like to do, like remodeling a bathroom, etc. In addition, the book covers making things from "scratch" which is how many projects are once you finish the demolition phase. In comparison, the home repair book focuses on repairs rather than new projects. As an engineer, I consider myself "above average" in home repair. However, this book has saved me a few times, when I got lost, such as helping me to understand a three way electric switch circuit for my kitchen light. The cut away diagrams are very useful; especially for the plumbing sections. They literally cut things in half, to show you the inside view, whether it be a garbage disposal or a shower stall. Black & Decker used significant resources in making this book because in a way it is an advertisement for B&D tools. The book conveniently displays and uses Black & Decker tools in the pictures. Bear in mind that Black & Decker is in the business of selling tools, not books. However, that being said the book is still a great reference.
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference Book!
Review: The B&D Home Improvement book is the core of my home improvement library. I reviewed other home improvement books at Home Depot, but liked B&D's books. I also own the B&D Home Repair and B&D Bathrooms books. The three books use many of the same pictures, but I do not regret buying any of them. I prefer this book over the others because the projects it covers are things I would like to do, like remodeling a bathroom, etc. In addition, the book covers making things from "scratch" which is how many projects are once you finish the demolition phase. In comparison, the home repair book focuses on repairs rather than new projects. As an engineer, I consider myself "above average" in home repair. However, this book has saved me a few times, when I got lost, such as helping me to understand a three way electric switch circuit for my kitchen light. The cut away diagrams are very useful; especially for the plumbing sections. They literally cut things in half, to show you the inside view, whether it be a garbage disposal or a shower stall. Black & Decker used significant resources in making this book because in a way it is an advertisement for B&D tools. The book conveniently displays and uses Black & Decker tools in the pictures. Bear in mind that Black & Decker is in the business of selling tools, not books. However, that being said the book is still a great reference.
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference Book!
Review: The B&D Home Improvement book is the core of my home improvement library. I reviewed other home improvement books at Home Depot, but liked B&D's books. I also own the B&D Home Repair and B&D Bathrooms books. The three books use many of the same pictures, but I do not regret buying any of them. I prefer this book over the others because the projects it covers are things I would like to do, like remodeling a bathroom, etc. In addition, the book covers making things from "scratch" which is how many projects are once you finish the demolition phase. In comparison, the home repair book focuses on repairs rather than new projects. As an engineer, I consider myself "above average" in home repair. However, this book has saved me a few times, when I got lost, such as helping me to understand a three way electric switch circuit for my kitchen light. The cut away diagrams are very useful; especially for the plumbing sections. They literally cut things in half, to show you the inside view, whether it be a garbage disposal or a shower stall. Black & Decker used significant resources in making this book because in a way it is an advertisement for B&D tools. The book conveniently displays and uses Black & Decker tools in the pictures. Bear in mind that Black & Decker is in the business of selling tools, not books. However, that being said the book is still a great reference.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: This book is excellent! I own my own business as a real estate entrepreneur and part of the business at times involves repairing and/or remodeling older homes before I sell or rent them. After doing a significant amount of research on home repair/improvement books on the market by paging through several at bookstores and reading online reviews, I came to the conclusion that this book would suit my needs the best. I already purchased the complimentary book, "The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair" by the same publisher about 6 months ago and this book is of similar quality and style. The first thing you notice is its weight. It must weight at least 6 pounds! The numerous full color photos illustrating each of the 250 home improvement projects are what seperates this book from the others (which frequently only contain diagrams and/or illustrations). The photos make it much easier to understand the step-by-step tasks and instructions for each project. The first 20 pages of the book discuss project planning followed by 120 pages discussing basic techniques of carpentry, plumbing, and wiring before going into the details of each of the projects. This makes sure the readers have a good foundation of general knowledge before embarking on the instructions and details of each project. AS I said, I highly recommend this book along with its counterpart "The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair". These books have already helped my save a significant amount of money by allowing me to tackle some or the repair/improvement projects myself.
Rating:
Summary: Best Home Improvement manual I've seen
Review: This book, amongst many books on home improvement, stands out as one of the best I've seen. This book starts from the basics, helping you to identify the type of construction your house has, and moving on to more detailed topics like plumbing, wiring, and so forth. The bottom line: if you are handy with a hammer, but just don't know where to begin, reading this book would be a solid first step. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Help for the mechanically able but technically ignorant
Review: This book, amongst many books on home improvement, stands out as one of the best I've seen. This book starts from the basics, helping you to identify the type of construction your house has, and moving on to more detailed topics like plumbing, wiring, and so forth. The bottom line: if you are handy with a hammer, but just don't know where to begin, reading this book would be a solid first step. Highly recommended.
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