Mike M wrote in with a fantastic question!
What should homeowners include in an essential home repair supply kit? O-rings? Washers? Adhesives?
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Hey, I was just looking at your essential tools for DIYers post, and I had an idea for a future blog: essential materials and repair items to keep around the house.
For example it’s probably a good idea to always have some compatible o-rings and washers in case of a leak in the middle of the night (along with some plumbers grease).
And everyone should keep some WD-40, duct tape, twine, wood glue, etc. I started putting together a shelf in my basement for these essentials, and was wondering what I might be missing.
This brought to mind a post I wrote some time back, about screw and fastener assortments. I bought a couple of quick-access socket cap and button head machine screw assortments, which came in handy, but were a little limiting.
So then during a big sale at an industrial supplier, I ordered a lot of fastener boxes, making my own massive machine screw assortment.
But then I needed yet more sizes for a project.
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My father has a rule: never start a plumbing repair project on a Sunday. If you start working on a minor faucet or toilet repair, do it on a Saturday morning when the plumbing supply shops are still open.
I think that one can stock up on o-rings, rubber washers, and things like that, but I have some hesitations about whether they would make for good essential or emergency repair prep.
I remember going with my father to the local hardware store to pick up a part for a faucet. He first looked through his stash of spare parts, but nothing fit. So he shut off the water to the faucet, and took the washer to the hardware store, matching up sizes before buying a replacement.
If you’ve got one toilet or water faucet, then yes, it might make sense to buy some spare parts should something fail at midnight before a big Sunday holiday party. But if you’re able to shut off access to that facility for a day or two, is it essential to be able to repair it on a moment’s notice?
In another post, a reader commented that they bought 2 replacement parts whenever something failed. Unless very cost prohibitive, this might be a good way to build up a replacement part kit. It’s a good way to stock up on light bulb sizes too.
When your car’s headlight or blinker light goes out, do you have the replacement on-hand, or do you head to the store to buy what you need when you need it?
That being said, here are a few things that I think might go into a homeowner’s essential supply kit:
- WD-40 (maybe replace every few years)
- 3-in-1 oil
- Essential tools
- Duct tape
- Adhesives: Silicone repair tape?, Gorilla Glue, Crazy Glue, Elmer’s glue, maybe epoxy
- Indoor and outdoor caulk
- Drywall anchors and screws
What else? I’m drawing a blank about what else I might need.
I recently read a copper pipe leak repair post somewhere, where the DIYer blogger recommended keeping a couple of parts on-hand for emergency repair purposes.
I don’t recall my father ever having to repair a pipe in the home I grew up in. We’ve got copper pipes in our new home, and I assume that if there’s ever a pinhole leak or similar, that’s when I’ll gather what I need to do a quick repair.
I’ve been hesitant to build up a big supply kit for myself, for 2 reasons.
1. What the heck will I need?
There is no way to anticipate every need.
2. Things go bad.
I just had to throw away a bunch of chemicals because they were so old they likely lost their potency, even some new in the bottle. I have yet to replace some of them.
Things like rubber washers can absolutely degrade over time, whether they’re in open air or sealed away in a tool box.
What Supplies or Kind of Supplies Would You Put into a Home Repair Kit?
K2
Shark bite pipe end caps, which can be installed even while the water is still flowing.
Red and yellow wire nuts.
Good quality 1&1/2″ wafer head screws
Not drywall screws which often break, but something more like Simpson or GRK.
Self fusing tape
Fire extinguisher
Graphite spray, often more appropriate than WD40, especially for things like locks and hinges.
High temp hot melt glue, much stronger than the craft stuff
fred
My favorite glue gun:
http://www.amazon.com/3M-Applicator-Quadrack-Converter-Trigger/dp/B001AO27V0
but the sticks are hard to find in small quantities.
Farid
I can vouch for these as well. We have a few at work with a few different types of glue sticks.
My Dewalt glue gun is at home is not bad either and I use the Stanley high temp glue sticks. They seems to hold pretty good and are readily available.
pete
SHARK BITE END CAPS!
I will throw a vote for those! Lol i had my dogs break a hose bib off the exterior of the house at 10pm. I had to turn the water off till about 9am when i could go the the store and get a new hose bib. Coincidentally the replacement hose bib had to be a shark bite fitting other wise i would have had to tear out the surrounding area to solder a new fitting on.
David Martinez
For plumbing, I keep a small assortment of short copper and pvc pipe lengths on hand. Also, I keep two 1/2″ and two 3/4″ shark bite push on connectors on hand at all times to aid me to make that emergency repair in the middle of the night when the store is closed.
fred
Good idea if you have this sort of water system. My old house is plumbed with a combination of red brass screw-fitting pipe and PEX. My daughter’s house is all PEX. My son’s house would benefit from your off-hours emergency kit as it has copper sweat-fit water pipe (we used to call this tubing to distinguish it from heavy walled pipe – sch 40 or higher)
K2
I haven’t tried it, but shark bite is supposed to work on pex
Tom A.
Shark Bites work on copper, pvc and pex. All fittings come with a stiffner sleeve for the pex. They also recently started offering fittings that transition from copper to pvc.
Nathan
fantastic query with multitudes of answers. I live in suburbia – so I don’t feel a need to keep alot of stuff in the house for repairs. At least I say that. Within 10 minutes in either direction I have home depot, lowes, and a local hardware store.
However. I like to keep a hold of any extra hardware I get from any kit or car repair. I try to keep an assortment of wood screws. I do a decent bit of car repair so I have a small assortment of metric and SAE screws and bolts too.
WD-40. I used to hate WD-40, still do. I keep either Liquid wrench or PB blaster on hand instead.
A can of goo gone
A bottle of bicycle chain lube – the teflon loaded clear if I can find it. Fastastic on just about any other household lube need.
Wire of a few sizes. Including romex.
electrical tape
plumber tape
wire ties of various sizes
various cleaners. Simple green, greased lightening, vinegar etc.
I’m not sure what else.
Stuart
Good point about the wood screws – it prompted me to add drywall anchors to the list.
Bob
I like your basic list. I know Home Depot may not be convenient for everyone or have as good a supply list and price as the trade specific stores, but they are open 6am-10pm M-Sat and 6am -8pm on Sundays. That leaves very small windows for an emergency repair that can usually be turned off and wait till morning.
But it's me!
Our local Home Depot and Lowe’s seem to cycle between closing at 9 or 10 M-Sa, and 7 or 8 on Sundays. Something to keep in mind.
mike aka Fazzman
Yeah I use WD-40 for some things mainly for cleaning stuff,it kinda sucks for lubricating. Kroil oil is nice to have, Garage door lube i like for somethings. Tapes,zipties, depends on the person really,but any toolfanatic person would have everything of this nature. spare pvc in case of breaks.
fred
Emergencies and accidents are almost by definition hard to predict.
In a way I was thankful that my professional career was, for the most years, a mostly regular business hours deal – with most weekends and nights off. Visiting my daughter once in the DC area I saw a local TV ad for a plumbing contractor that worked only on off hours – claimed quick response – professional work and commensurate high prices. He probably had a handle on what sorts of things went awry most often.
My take on it is that you should know when to evacuate the house and/or call 911 if things are really bad. After that you should know where your gas (if you have it) shutoff valve is located – and have a wrench hanging nearby. The same is true for your main breaker (or fuses) and water shutoff. If your water shutoff is a curb box – you should know how to get at it and have the appropriate curb box key (wrench) to shut it off in case your basement is flooded/flooding.
Sometimes minor water leaks can be fixed with a repair saddle clamp or some plumber’s epoxy (both are cheap and readily available in the plumbing aisle of HD or Lowes) – while you wait on getting or doing the job right. We’d have other ways to shut off a leak – such as our Ridgid 68967 freeze kit, our Wheeler Rex shutoff tools, our Wassi stoppers etc. – but these are much too expensive to buy on speculation that you might someday need them.
Buying other plumbing parts (for toilet or faucet) on speculation – would seem uneconomical – unless you have some really oddball fixture with a long-lead time for obtaining parts. Otherwise you can usually shut of the water locally – and wait until HD or the local plumbing supply house opens. When faucets with washers were the norm – then it was useful to have an assortment of these and screws as well – alond with some replaceable seats and/or a seat dresser. But now – most of our fixtures have cartridges.
Having a few good plumbing tools that include a pair of pipe wrenches (wrenches are used in pairs), a Knipex plier wrench for fixtures, a closet auger (and a force cup), a small snake, a pair of strap wrenches and/or a trap wrench would seem like good a good idea,
Having an electrical AC voltage tester would also be useful to sort out what’s live and what’s not. A circuit locator would be a add on to this – but not quite as needed for emergency use IMO.
Thinking about glue – having some quick setting epoxy and a hot melt glue gun available is not a bad idea. Duct tape was already mentioned – but maybe some HD clear plastic sheeting would be useful with the duct tape for a temporary fix for a broken window.
Appliances also fail – but keeping specialized tools and parts on hand also seems a bit extravagant.
With other parts that wear out (everything from light bulbs, hose bib washers, garage door pulleys and lift cables, HVAC filters etc.) I think it best to keep an eye on them and buy in advance of need.
But it's me!
Curb box key is an essential bit, especially if your home does not have an interior main valve. Yes, it should have an interior valve, but I have yet to find it in our 30 year old home (suspect it was walled over with a repair). I have to rely on the box key, which can also do double duty for the gas valve. And let your spouse/offspring know where the key and valves are located.
fred
We saw lots of old homes that had an equally old gate valve as the interior shutoff. They were always a bit dicey to operate if they had not been exercised in many years. Sometimes the gate would break off (we’d say that the gate had dropped). If we were doing a big remodel – we’d often add a ball valve shutoff and tag the old gate valve with a warning “do not try to operate”
But it's me!
Our previous, circa 1940’s home had one of those valves. One of the first things I did was replace it with a ball valve. Our current home gets ball valves every time a fixture or hose is replaced. In another 15 years I may finally have them all replaced. Even tried some Shark ball valves and they worked, to my surprise.
jimmie
Consumables:
* A handful of different types of drywall anchors (a couple toggle bolts, and a few different sizes of other plastic anchors) and screws to fit
* Adhesives: two types of epoxy: JB Weld and 2-Ton/30-minute (the 5-minute stuff tends to be brittle), medium viscosity superglue (get it at a hobby store…beware of shelf life, though), weatherproof wood glue
* Tapes: electrical, plumbers, duct and painter’s/masking tape
* An assortment of small bolts, nuts, washers and screws. You can get these for cheap on ebay or even Harbor Freight.
* A small assortment of wire nuts. A few each of: red, yellow and orange will cover almost every wire gauge you’re likely to encounter around the house.
* Zip ties and twine for holding things together in an emergency
* A paintable, weatherproof caulk but be diligent about replacing the tube annually. Even unopened caulk has a shelf life.
* Lubricants: I agree with Stuart here. WD-40 and a 3-in-1 oil. If you’re in a pickle and don’t have either of those, a dab of cooking spray or veg. oil will work in a pinch so long as temperatures don’t exceed around 350F.
* Baking soda will neutralize spilled battery acid. Good to keep a box on hand.
* Drywall spackle. Keep shelf life in mind
Tools:
* (I’ll skip the standard hammer, screwdrivers, etc…)
* A pair of pipe wrenches
* A box cutter/utility knife with extra blades.
* Keep an old toothbrush handy for scrubbing things
* A hacksaw blade
* Common-sized drill bits. Keep a few 1/8″ and 3/16″ bits on hand.
* Lights: a decent headlamp and a couple clamp lights will go a long way.
Other things:
* Make sure you know where your gas and water shutoff values are
* Make sure your circuit panel labels are accurate. Spend an afternoon on this if you have to. Make two lists. First list, list by breaker #. Second list, list by room.
dll932
SPARE BATTERIES, epoxy putty, rotary tool (Dremel, etc.), screw, washer and nut assortment (English and metric, hopefully). Gaffer’s tape (which I like better than duct tape-tears clean, doesn’t leave residue). Rivet tool and rivets. Given the choice I’d rather use WD-40 than graphite-it displaces moisture and won’t clog things up, which graphite can (I’m a locksmith with 30+ years experience). I like Tri-Flow more than WD-40, though. Synthetic grease with teflon-tube or spray (both if possible. Won’t separate like lithium). Digital VOM, doesn’t have to be expensive-tells much more than a test light. Accelerator for the super glue-makes for better bonds with odd materials. Socket set, 3/8″ and 1/4″ drive at least, English and metric. Stainless wire (safe tying wire-Harbor Freight sells it). Goop adhesive (tenacious, flexible when dry). Rat tail and half-round bastard cut files, a few different sizes.
I tried to include suggestions that weren’t otherwise covered.
Wayne Ruffner
A subscription to Angie’s List.
Adam
Sufficient zip-ties and duct tape can patch up pretty much anything for sufficiently long until a professional can come along to fix it properly.
And making sure you know how to isolate the water / electricity / gas will help limit damage in a REAL emergency.
RX9
Other home repair consumables:
White appliance touch up paint, wood putty, white paint, drywall mud, carpet tape, standard fasteners, plywood.
Looking at the garage and focusing on vehicles and powered equipment, rather than home repair:
Goop, PB Blaster, Permatex Ultra Grey, metric fasteners, blade fuses, trim screws, JB Weld, electrical tape, duct tape, zip ties.
Chris
Home Depot/Lowes carry various 2 part “putties” that, when kneaded together, become excellent adhesives, leak stoppers, etc. They have one for underwater use, metals, etc. Id buy at least the underwater use one…..in case something springs a leak and needs to be fixed right away, at least temporarily.
All of the previous comments are pretty good….I wont add to them but I will say I’ve used probably every supply also listed here, so its a good indication they are correct!
Chris
Actually not sure I saw these:
non-contact thermometer
non-contact voltage tester
If you all of a sudden have to fix something electrical, its good to know where you are isnt live. Dont trust one circuit breaker to de-energize all wires in a box, always be 100% sure with something (multimeter or non-contact-voltage tester)
The non-contact thermometer is good to see if a breaker is literally hot and has various other uses including checking to see if a caliper is hanging on your car .
Chris
And yet another….your dryer vent thread made me remember:
Buy an actual spray foam insulation gun. You can get a dcent one off Ebay for $30 or so…then you can use the larger cans of Great Stuff (Great Stuff Pro) or Dow Enerfoam.
While the gun is an up-front cost, it should pay off pretty quickly when you actually use the WHOLE contents of a single can of spray foam, vs the “single use” cans that dont shut off when you stop pulling the trigger and always run out of gas before they run out of foam.
Home Depot has the Great Stuff Pro in Window/Door (light blue can) and Fire block approved (red can). Because the guns allow you accurate feed rate changes, you can make the non-big-gap stuff actually fill a big gap just by opening the valve some more.
dichosa
As an owner of apartment buildings who has on-call employees, I have some experience with what to keep on hand for late-night emergencies. Some of the things I need only pertain to one building and so are kept at that building only. Many things aren’t true emergencies and can wait until a supply store opens and the day shift comes in.
I always have the proper tools/keys to turn off water mains and natural gas.
No heat is an emergency in winter as is no hot water so I keep the simple things such as a universal thermocouple for gas heat and water heaters. Don’t need to keep thermostats or zone valves as they can be operated manually. Not having a toilet is an emergency if you’ve only got one toilet in the house, so wax rings (thick and normal), a toilet plunger and a toilet auger. A 5 gallon bucket or two to catch slow drips and even though I hate them for permanent repair some shark bites in various sizes along with a pipe cutter. I don’t like to solder at 3 am and shark bites help a lot with that. I do keep pex supplies and tools at properties that have pex as well. I also keep a selection of plywood, saws, screws, etc. so I can cover a broken window or secure a door that’s been kicked down or forced open. All my on-call employees carry the usual tools, drill guns, etc. but I learned a long time ago that it’s good to have their phones programmed with the numbers for the fire department and non emergency police and since the new phones have cameras, I like lots of pictures for the insurance companies, etc.
Almost forgot another important piece: all this stuff is kept in a cabinet that is marked for on-call and we regularly inventory and replace the consumables. That way we have it when we really need it.
Christopher Rafter
My number one go-to item is a decent cordless drill with a flip bit (drill/countersink bit on one side, philips driver on the other) and a box of self tapping screws. , They can either be the drywall variety or the panhead, at least an inch in length. These drive well into both metal and wood. Perfect for just about any furniture or wall repair, picture hanging, or installation work.
fm2176
I try to keep an assortment of hardware and supplies on hand, but don’t really plan around using them specifically around the house. My truck is another matter, I keep spare bulbs, fluids, and other stuff in it.
My philosophy is never throw anything useful away. I was a forklift mechanic years ago and still have some quick disconnect hydraulic fittings. A few years ago I got home from leave to find my water circulation pump had frozen and blown an o-ring. It was late on a Saturday night, and I needed to bypass the pump somehow. Fortunately, one of the hydraulic fittings I’d held onto for over ten years by that point had the same threads. A little PVC tape and the pump was bypassed at the water heater.
John
I wish I had a better solution, as I seem to be too prepared but always for the wrong things. I feel like my home is a hardware store with the amount of overstock and “just in case” parts and hardware. Am I going to use these 10 3/8 th inch bolts, maybe … someday, better not throw them out. But nothing makes me more upset than having to make 4 trips to the store though and that’s if thrh have it in stock. Worse yet is trolling the Internet for parts and waiting for the mail, better order multiple since I’ll never find it again. So to make a long story short, I’m still trying to find that balance myself.
Farid
There are a lot of good ideas here. I have a large assortment of tools, glues, chemicals, parts on hand, but it seems that most go unused. As already mentioned, glues go bad, caulking and spakling does not work well when not fresh.
I have had to repair a leaking pipe in the middle of the night (water humidifier supply line); bad light switch, bad circuit breaker, bad GFI, garage door roller, running toilet, …etc. Some could have waited until the next day, so having parts on hand was not as crucial. But, sometimes, depending on your situations, it a good idea to stock up. For example, If you have more than bathroom, you may get away with waiting until you get to the store to buy a new flapper to fix a running toilet .
Here is my list of must haves:
1- Carpet stain remover–definitely #1 if you have young kids. Goo-gone or citrus glue remover, and some denatured alcohol as well for various cleaning tasks.
2- toilet plunger and clog remover. Even a small auger for a shower or sink drain can be very handy.
3- A small plunger dedicated to kitchen or bathroom sink
4- an assortment of tapes (one roll each) : Duct tape, painters tape, electrical tape and good packaging tape.
5- A small supply of glue: Super glue (and accelerate available from hobby stores). White glue and perhaps Epoxy. These items should be treated as disposable and replaced every few years. I keep a couple of different kinds of super glue in the fridge sealed in a heavy duty ziplock bag and they last for years that way. One is flexible and bio tested. It works wonders on small cuts and split nails!
6- A small assortment of screws, especially some wood screws in 1.5″ and 2.5″ length. It’s worth mentioning that I have a large assortment of drywall screws, wood screws, deck screws, machine screws, and concrete anchor screws. But it seems that I always end up having to buy more when I work on projects. So it is tough to keep every conceivable size you may need.
7- I also keep at least qty 1 each 2×4, 1×4 and 1×2. The wood has come in handy while doing other projects , often as as temporary support of some form.
8- A small hand pump for transferring liquids, or…
9- A few feet of flexible tubing. 1/4-1/2″. It comes in handy for siphoning and draining various items, from a clogged sink, to an overflowing refrigerator condensate pan. If you have a a mighty-vac and a small plastic container or jar with a tight lid, you could make a very effective siphoning system.
10- One small and one large buckets; a jar or two with tight fitting lids; and perhaps an empty paint can. I use the paint can to store solvent soaked rags until I can dispose of them (or like the other night, oil soaked rags from a spilled brake fluid container.) This helps keep vapors in check and minimizes risk from self ignition. I keep the can in a cool spot in the outside garage or even outdoor (tightly closed In a shady spot) if the risk of fire is high.
11- A hose clamp or two; hose washers; and hose repair end.
12- Based on prior experience, an extra circuit breaker; switch and GFI. Often, you have to go to a pro store to get the right kind circuit breaker, and during a long holiday weekends, you may have to wait a few days to get one. Or, if you have an old panel, you may need to special order a replacement. However, in an emergency, you can swap in a circuit breaker from a seldom used circuit to one you need immediately.
13- An extra garage door roller. I have had ones go bad in the middle of winter; either trying to get work in the morning, or late at night with the garage door stuck half way down!
14- Light bulbs (as many base sizes as you may need).
15- If you do painting or work on cars, you may want to keep a bag of spill absorbent on hand. I had one that coagulated spilled paint and it worked great.
16- In cold-weather areas, a small gas heater (indoor safe kind) and small supply of camping propane comes in equally handy during power outage or urgent car repairs in the garage. I have a hose kit that allows me to connect to the larger grill propane tank as well for longer run time.
17- Goes without saying: flash lights, batteries, and lanterns.
18- You can keep and extra set of washer hoses, just in case. But a better strategy is to replace those every few years and be safer all around.
19- A tub of Go-Jo hand cleaner (without abrasive). great for pretreating grease, or even cooking oil spots from clothes before washing.
20- A piece of two of rope. I keep some para-cord and some sisal. The sisal is handy for tying up cardboard and paper bundles for recycling.
21 – Extra shop vac bag.
22- Finally, ample supply of band aids, ointments and burn jell. If you’re a handyman, then you know what I mean!
Kurt
I keep a box of fluted dowels in my ready supply kit that I bring to work. A great fix for a stripped woodscrew hole is to drill out for a hardwood dowel so that it is a tap fit, glue in the dowel and redrill the screw hole. Fast and permanent
repair that is better than original in some cases.
Lots of wire ties, of course.
Duct tape, and regular masking tape.
Out in the garage, a bag of oil absorbent.
If you have a lawn and sprinklers, some extra heads, for when you run them over with the mower or wack them.
I keep a couple of 2 X 4’s and a couple of my fence boards on hand. Also some scraps of plywood.
A medium size tarp.
fred
The less elegant solution for stripped woodscrew holes – is a toothpick or 2 and some yellow wood glue (even Elmer’s white glue will do in a pinch). Dip the ends of the toothpick(s) in glue, tap 1 or more of them into the offending hole(s) then cut off what stands proud with a pair of dykes.
Lauren
Old towels, a tarp or two, nails, screws, flashlight, matches, bucket(s), plunger, drain snake, tools to control shutoffs, duct tape, electrical tape, fire extinguisher, and wd40. I’ve used everything but the fire extinguisher in just eight months of owning a house. These kept the worry down until I could get to the store for permanent fixes.
ChrisP
A large waterproof tarpaulin and enough rope to secure it
A sheet of 1/4 inch ply
A camping stove and gas bottle
One of those all in one wind up radio flashlights that don’t need batteries
Matt
I think it is best to build up a homeowner’s repair kit over time based on what you have used in the past. This way you have experience with the materials and you know they will be useful around your house. If you just buy a bunch of things at once you’ll wind up with a lot of items you never use.
Whenever I work on a project I usually buy a couple of extra parts for future use or incase I break something while installing them. Over the last 3 years of home ownership I have built up a good collection of parts for electrical, framing, fasteners, painting, plumbing, irrigation, etc.
On the other hand, it is a good idea to be prepared for emergencies. In my opinion there are only 2 critical tasks here:
1) Make sure your main water/power/gas shutoffs work and that you know how to use them. Test them yearly to make sure they work and don’t leak.
2) Have multiple fire extinguishers around the house. Make sure your fire and CO2 detectors work properly.
If you have the above covered then you should be able to quickly get to a stable point if an emergency occurs. Then you can take your time to fix it properly.
Similarly, it is a good idea to try to prevent emergencies from occurring in the first place. When you buy a new house it is a good idea to replace all of the water valves (I like 1/4 turn valves) and the hoses for sinks, toilets, and appliances. This is cheap insurance. Remove any saddle valves you find (common on refrigerator water lines) since these often leak and usually won’t seal 100% when you close them. I also replaced all of the outlets and switches in our house since it was inexpensive and allowed me to check for wiring issues.
The earlier suggestion of doing a map of your circuit breakers is a great idea. You can also quickly test the wiring of all your outlets using a plug-in circuit checker.
Personally I never use WD-40 or duct tape since there always seems to be a more appropriate solution.
My recommendation is to cover the critical items above and to make sure you have a decent set of tools and a few tarps and buckets. The rest of the collection will grow naturally as it is needed.
– Matt
Rusty
I live out in the country so it’s at least 30 minutes to an hour round trip to get something depending on what I need so I’ll generally get two of whatever I’m replacing if it’s something cheap just to avoid driving more.
Pvc repair is a must for me so I always make sure to have primer, quick setting glue and a couple of sliding quick fixes for when the pipes leak.
An extra toilet repair kit is handy to have around too.
Robert Tripp
All great ideas. And a lot of them. Almost need to define what an “emergency” is. And then how comfortable or uncomfortable you can be ( are there small children home) in that emergency.
Seems that running water at night would be a definite emergency. I would think all homes have a main shut off to stop that water. If just you and the wife at home could probably handle it no problem until the morning. If you had four or five youngsters in the home too. With one bathroom for all. That just might not wait until morning.
To the list I add, section of old bicycle tube or any similar material and a few hose clamps. Invaluable items for leaks in any size/type of water supply lines in the home. As ya never no when a pin hole leak starts up in the attic of your single story home and you are just watching the wet spot grow on your kitchen ceiling. Or you started late that night doing the demo on your bathroom remodel and you cut right through the copper pipe in the wall with a circular saw because you set the blade depth too deep!
Trippy
John
As strange as it may be I don’t have an emergency kit! Whatever I need is in the workshop and even with the power out I have 3 LED torches and 2 battery LED workshop lights so I can always get what I want at any time and repair something.
Back in Australia I used to buy nuts, bolts, washers and screws in cardboard boxes down the engineering shop as I never thought those plastic box multi kits where much good.
I do have a first aid kit…..does that count?
Jay
screws (variety of pan head and flat head Phillips sheet metal screws 8’s, 10’s and 12’s from 3/4″ to 1 1/2″) drywall screws, hex head self taping screws (1″ 6’s or 8’s) 1/8″ toggle bolts, blue dots, roofing tacks and or metal roof screws, monkey hooks, door stops
one bundle of matching shingles
wire nuts (get some tan ones along with the other colors already mentioned), spare fuses, breaker, wall switch, duplex outlet, wall plates, outlet covers, light bulbs, florescent tubes, 3M electrical tape, duct tape, metal tape, tie wire, batteries for co2 and smoke alarms, phone jack and if you have cable maybe some coax connectors, stripper and compression tool (ebay is your friend)
spray lube
faucet washers and or seats and springs, 1 1/2″ and 1/1/4″ slip nuts and washers, garden hose washers, plumbers grease, abrasive cloth or open mesh, pipe dope, plastic pipe cement and cleaner, inner outer reamer, acid brushes
Dap Kwik Seal tub and tile caulk, Alex Plus latex caulk, a tube of clear silicon or Lexel, spackling, tube of roofing cement
screen roller
non acid coil cleaner and gallon sprayer
hearing and eye protection, nitrile gloves, ROC gloves (Amazon B004OEJCPM), dust mask
A wire mesh face shield w/head gear is nice to have if you run your weed eater around rocks/gravel
this list could go on and on and on and on
James P.
I probably keep more items than most, but I have a rental home that keeps me busy working. I have multiple parts boxes for different household repairs. One has Sharkbite end caps, repair couplings, and splices in 1/2 and 3/4 inch. Another has all types of wire nuts sorted by size. Have boxes with picture hanging hardware of various sizes, hanging wire, etc.
Other items consist of:
1 1/4″ screws
1 5/8″ screws drywall and coated
3″ screws drywall and coated
Galvanized finish nails 10d
Roofing nails
WD40
Duct tape
3in1 oil
PB Blaster
Electrical tape
Assorted caulking (left over from main projects at home)
Fender washers
Shims
Wax ring
Water lines for toilet and sinks
Wood glue
Toothpicks for screw holes
Super glue
Batteries
Assorted plumbing washers, fittings, o-rings
And a pile of miscellaneous lumber.
Coach James
I keep a large assortment of sheet metal, wood, deck screws and lots of other hardware at my house. Plenty of tools as well. At my house and my building, I keep a couple tarps, 2 sheets of plywood, a few 2×4’s, rope, 550 cord, etc.
At both places, I also keep extra toilet flappers and flush handles. If either fails, bathroom down time is only a couple minutes.
Also, I keep various types of glue, spare shingles, sheet metal and anything else I think I might use some day. I never really thought of this as emergency stuff as my dad was the same way. I grew up thinking it was normal to have a smaller version of a building supply store at home.
Jonathan
Menards, a big box store in the Midwest, often entices customers with products that are free after rebate. (Where “free” means you are reimbursed in the form of store credit.) Many of the items are small, mid-quality tools and/or hardware. I’ve picked up screwdrivers, hinges, safety glasses, cleaning supplies, tape measures, office supplies, windshield wipers, etc. that were free or nearly free after rebate. In this way, I’ve been able to put together small supply kits for relatives who are moving into an apartment or their first residence. It’s not the best repair or supply kit ever, but it’s something to get them started…and it really doesn’t cost me much of anything to give them this gift.
Best part: Using the store credit slips to purchase more items that are free after rebate, which then allows me to purchase more free items with store credit, which allows me to….you get the idea. As long as you’re diligent about mailing the rebate slips by the deadline and don’t get suckered into buying other stuff while picking up the “freebies,” you can do okay.
Nate 818
You can’t go wrong with the more expensive wall anchors.
Big HVAC style zip ties
Skip in GA
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a socket head cap screw outside of my garage (or factory if that counts). So you can probably leave that assortment out. ;^)
(stock photos & all that…)
Here’s what you don’t need since they’ll be coming out your ears shortly: telephone cables. Can’t swing a dead cat in my house without hitting one.
Andrew
I would drop the WD-40 and replace it with Fluid Film. It has all the advantages of WD-40, and none of the drawbacks, plus additional benefits in terms of being a penetrant with corrosion blocking/prevention qualities.
It’s not as available as WD-40, but it’s leagues ahead in functionality.
Mark
If you need a sump pump, buy a cheap spare and enough PVC pipe and fittings to be able to replace yours. It will fail when the stores are closed.