What seems like a peaceful and normal day can be sharply interrupted by an accident in the home. Whether your washing machine has spilled into the kitchen, your electricity has gone, or your toilet has blocked, these little instances of havoc can be incredibly annoying. Rather than cancel your plans, or spend hours fretting, here are some ways to deal with common accidents and occurrences in the home.
Blown fuse box
We’ve all had that surprise moment when simply turning on the toaster or vacuum cleaner creates a sudden pop, plunging our home into darkness. Rather than panic, head straight to your fuse box. If you’re in a rented property and don’t know where it is yet, it can usually be found underneath the stairs, in the hallway or in the garage. When you open the lid, you will find a list of breakers, which will be named (usually ‘kitchen,’ ‘bathroom’ and so on.) One of these switches should have tripped. It’s simply a matter of flipping it back on.
Blocked toilet
Many emergency plumbers are called out to deal with this one, but unless you’ve been shoving hygiene products or wet wipes down your toilet, you can probably fix it yourself. In order to loosen the clog, get a bucket of hot water and washing up liquid. The soap should help to lubricate the u-bend. Then, if this doesn’t solve it, use a toilet plunger. Many people worry that the clog goes further down, but as mentioned above if you’ve been sensible about what you flush down the toilet it is unlikely to be anything else. Investing in a plunger in the first place could save you the cost of future call-outs.
No heating
Rather than looking online for instructions on how to tweak and fix your air conditioning, leave this one to the professionals. When you’re dealing with electricity and a heater you have to be 100% certain that you know what you’re doing. If it’s the furnace that’s broken, then your best bet is to ring a specialised repair service that’s close to you, by searching for ‘furnace repair Calgary.’ You can find specialists online, at websites such as this one: https://actionfurnace.ca/furnaces/furnace-repair/.
Jammed sliding door
If you’ve accidentally pulled your patio sliding doors off the rails in one hasty movement, then don’t worry. It can feel a bit daunting to take apart one of the entrances to your home, but it’s easy enough to do. In order to fix this, you will need to detach and reattach the exterior sliding door. It’s a good idea to have someone onsite to help you do this, as the door itself can be incredibly heavy. Remember, too, to give the tracks a good wipe down. Part of your reason for yanking the door in the first place may have been a dirty rail.
If any of these problems keep occurring, then it’s best to call in for professional help. It’s likely that any one of these home accidents will happen every now and then in our lifetime, but if they’re happening daily, it’s probably a bigger problem.