Large Home Improvement Book Recall

Resources - January 8, 2010

It’s not often that you have a book, much less a large set of home improvement books, that are voluntarily recalled.

Covers of 9 recalled Home Improvement books. Yet, that’s exactly what’s happened to about 951,000 different home improvement books published by Oxmoor House, Inc., a publishing company that specializes in informative “lifestyle” books.

Oxmoor House, Inc. and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are working together on the home improvement book recall. The nine books in question are all home improvement in nature and contain errors in electrical diagrams and wiring instructions that, if followed to the letter, could give DIY homeowners an electrical shock or could result in an unsafe fire hazard.

The books were published between 1975 and 2009, which indicates that the exact same wiring diagrams and instructions have been used over and over again in these various home improvement books for the past three decades without anyone catching the error!

Though the Consumer Product Safety Commission has reported no incidents related to the error, Oxmoor House still strongly encourages anyone with the books to contact them for a full refund. To get the book refund you will need to register your recalled home improvement book on the special recall website: www.sunsetrecall.com or call the Oxmoor House Recall hotline at (866) 696-7602.

After contacting them, Oxmoor House will send you a prepaid shipping label so that you can mail the recalled book back to them free of charge. Within 4-6 weeks you will receive a check as a refund for the book. You do not need to have a sales receipt to be eligible for the refund.

The nine books in question are:

Title	ISBN	Publication Date	Sugg. Price
AmeriSpec Home Repair Handbook	978-0-376-00180-1	January 2006	$24.95
Lowe’s Complete Home Improvement and Repair	978-0-376-00922-7 978-0-376-01098-8	September 2005 & December 1999	$34.95
Lowe’s Complete Home Wiring	978-0-376-00928-9	May 2008	$29.95
Sunset Basic Home Repairs	978-0-376-01581-5 978-0-376-01025-4	February 1995 January 1975	$12.95
Sunset Complete Home Wiring	978-0-376-01594-5	December 1999	$19.95
Sunset Complete Patio Book	978-0-376-01411-5 978-0-376-01397-2 978-0-376-01399-6	January 2006 & January 1998 & April 1990	$19.95
Sunset Home Repair Handbook	978-0-376-01258-6 978-0-376-01256-2	October 1998 & February 1985	$19.95
Sunset Water Gardens	978-0-376-03849-4	January 2004	$19.95
Sunset You Can Build - Wiring	978-0-376-01596-9	January 2009	$24.95

This is not the first time a home improvement book has been recalled due to faulty electrical diagrams. Back in May of 2009 two other electrical book, “Wiring a House 3rd Edition” and “Wiring Complete Expert Advice from Start to Finish” were also recalled. Both books, published by The Taunton Press, contained electrical graphics that were mislabeled, mixing up the ground and neutral wires and incorrectly stating how to wire a GFCI Receptacle.

I do not have any of the home improvement books on the recall list. If you’re looking for good DIY home improvement books with plenty of photos and fairly clear instructions, I usually recommend the Black and Decker Complete Guides as a good starting point.