Home repair crisis? Keep your cool and don’t get ripped off

Home Improvement

Lessons from a sewer pipe leak: Cultivate relationships with trusted tradespeople, particularly a plumber, before an emergency occurs.

You should know where and how to shut off the water in your home — and make sure the rest of your family does, too. Ally Rzesa/Globe staff

It’s hard to make level-headed decisions when you’re standing in a fetid pool of your own feces and urine, and your mother-in-law is due to arrive any minute for a weekend visit.

That’s the position in which I found myself one Friday this

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