How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding and Maintaining Your Home

The illustrations in this book, and the associated text, are fantastic. If you know 'know nothing' about how your house works and want to start learning, this is the book I recommend. Sophisticated enough that you get important nuances - like how plumbing is constructed to avoid siphoning water out the traps - but simple enough that you can grasp what is happening easily. There are also tips for simple repairs or things to check before calling a repair person. I know a fair bit about home repair, but I found myself often learning useful things as I read it. On related note, if you have a child who is interested in home repair or construction or just how things work, this book makes it much easier to explain how/why things work in the home. Toilets, sinks, wells, light switches, etc. Although it is written for adults, most of the content is understandable by a child with an adult assisting in the explanation. I bought the book to read with my son, and he has greatly enjoyed it.

How Your House Works, Third Edition is an all-inclusive guide to taking care of your home. It covers everything from the plumbing, wiring, heating, cooling, appliances, windows and doors, foundation and frame to outdoor equipment and the solar home. It's the perfect book for the new home owner. The book explains how everything works and what you need to do to keep it working. It is filled with labelled drawings that are incredibly helpful to understanding what's going on in your home, locating problems, fixing them or communicating them to a professional. With a detailed table of contents and an index as well, you can quickly locate sections of interest. This easy to read, beautifully laid out book should be on every home owners bookshelf!

Overall this book is very useful, but one has to be aware that the details are about the USA houses only. So the measurements and other law requirements are quoted for the USA market only. Still, I've learnt a lot about my plumbing and heating from this book, since a lot of it still applies to the houses in Ireland (so I assume to UK as well). The drawings are really amazing and I appreciate the effort and depth of information. Of course this book is not for any professional, but a standard home owner should get some value from it anyway.

Very clear instructions on how your house works and the different aspects. Great diagrams that help with understanding. Has a section for easy fixes, and then when to see a professional. Bought this book as I just purchased my first house!

This book, "How Your House Works", is excellent for first-time homeowners and anyone who didn't grow up learning plumbing, electrical, etc. There is a full-color illustration on every page of the book, along with text that explains how each thing in your house works. While it doesn't go into detail on how to fix every single thing that might go wrong with each part of your house, it does tell you "what to look for" before calling a plumber or electrician for service. I like that it explains the name of every part of something like a toilet, so when I talk to the plumber, I can describe the problem more accurately by using the correct terms rather than just say "the thingy that goes up and down", which makes it harder for the plumber to understand the problem and give me a quote for service. There is even a chapter on outdoor equipment that explains lawnmowers, chain saw, etc. My one suggestion/request is for the author to include more information about pool equipment, beyond the page on pool pump and solar heating. I would love an entire chapter about how an inground pool/spa works, and all of the different pumps and valves that go along with it. (Or maybe write a second book just about that topic!)