Recommended Books for Homeowners

Homeowner Must Have Books

If you’re a homeowner then I highly recommend several books that you should keep on hand to tackle home improvement, home repair and maintenance projects. One of the best investments I made when we bought our first home was buying some great home reference books.

If a loved one has recently purchased their first home then homeowner maintenance books are a great house warming gift!

Home Wiring

A good home wiring or electrical reference book is absolutely essential in my mind. I suggest you get a copy of The Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Wiring – 3rd Edition. I own this book and it’s a great reference for installing switches, receptacles and even low voltage projects. Trust me if you own a home you’ll refer to this book often.

You may also want to read my article on Must Have Electrical Tools if you plan on doing any electrical projects around the home.

Home Plumbing

Plumbing reference books are also a huge necessity for a number of projects. Good home plumbing books cover everything from roughing in plumbing to replacing faucets and toilets. Even though many plumbing projects are better left to professional plumbers having a book like this on hand will certainly help you answer questions and know when it’s time to call a professional. I recommend buying a copy of The Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Plumbing: Newly Expanded 3rd Edition.

Home Repair

Finally I recommend this great all around home repair reference manual. Taking care of a home is really a full time job and having answers and guidelines for repairs and maintenance is crucial. So I recommend buying the The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair.

Final Thoughts

So if you’ve recently purchased a home or if you’ve never owned any reference books then I suggest you buy some. They will certainly come in handy on many occasions. It’s also important to note that most of the home repair manuals are not available for the Kindle.

Todd Fratzel

I'm full time builder for a large construction company in New Hampshire. I run their design-build division that specializes in custom homes, commercial design-build projects and sub-divisions. I'm also a licensed civil and structural engineer with extensive experience in civil and structural design and home construction. My hope is that I can share my experience in the home construction, home improvement and home renovation profession with other builders and home owners. I'm also the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of Tool Box Buzz. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, suggestions or you'd like to inquire about advertising on this site.

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View Comments

Sarah says:
November 19, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Dude, my absolute #1 homeowner's guide is Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes, by Nash. It is a total guide to old houses - explains how they are built and how they work - and little things like parts of a window, plaster repair & original plaster parts/process, etc. Every time we look something up, it's a eureka moment (oh, that's why XYZ). If I could only hang onto one book in my whole library, this would be it. We've used it so much in 3 years, some of the pages are falling out. Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes
Greg Stallworth says:
November 29, 2009 at 3:03 am
Nice recommendations. I just love tools from black and decker and this some sort of my bible
Black & Decker Complete Home Improvement: with 300 Projects and 2,000 Photos (Black & Decker Complete Photo Guide). I'm curious if the contents of those three books are somehow in this complete book. But I guess topic-specific books are better and more detailed than one general home improvement book.
I'll definitely check out the three you recommended and grow my library. Thanks.
Keith @ Superior Fence Products says:
November 29, 2009 at 10:44 am
I really like the wiring and plumbing ones, as a previous electrician and plumber I know these books can really help homeowners.
Stumbled...
Keith