When opening an overhead cleanout in the basement, tie a heavy-duty plastic trashbag around the cleanout, leaving room to get your hand in to remove the cleanout plug that you previously loosened. Cut a small corner of the trashbag bottom and put a 5-gal. bucket under the hole.

When replacing the toilet handle on 90% of the toilets out in the field, it seems like all aftermarket handles and sometimes even OEM handles don’t fit in the square cutout of the porcelain all the time.

Shower valves, magnets, containing pipe dope spills- Tool tips for March 2014

Smoke-testing waste, smartphone tricks and faucet replacements are part of the January 2014 Tool Tips.