Home Repairs Merit Badge
Seven requirements, five of them menus, drawn so you can see which options your home actually offers, which ones share a tool or an afternoon, and which ones close in cold weather.
8 steps (34 parts inside them). 32 parts depend on questions you have not answered yet. · Version 1, published 13 August 2026 · About Home Repairs Merit Badge
No questions answered
This is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody. Answering the 6 questions at the address above takes out the parts that are not for you.
Which of this applies to you
You have not answered anything yet, so this is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody. Answering 6 short questions will take out the parts that are not for you.
Your progress
40 steps can be started now; 1 is waiting on something else.
Clear ticksYour ticks are kept in this browser, so they will still be here next time. They are in the address as well, so a link to this page carries them to another device.
The steps
Stage 1 of 8
1 step
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1. Safety first: hazards, and ten safe practices Requirement
Two discussions with your counselor, and the only requirement on this badge where everybody does the same thing. Nothing gates them, so they can be done at the first meeting, before any tool is bought.
2 parts
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1(a). The likely hazards, and the gear that answers them Often forgotten
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Stage 2 of 8
1 step
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2. Outside and weatherproofing: choose three of six Requirement
Four of the six need your home to supply something: a yard tool, cracked paving, a screen, or a broken pane. Two of the six are closed in cold wet weather. Weatherstripping is the one option available to anybody in any month.
WALK THE HOUSE BEFORE YOU CHOOSE, HERE AND IN THE FOUR MENUS AFTER IT. Around a dozen of this badge's thirty-two options need your home to supply something first: a fault to fix, a fixture to fix it on, or a material the building is actually made of. In this menu alone, four of the six do. You cannot recondition a yard tool you do not own, repair paving with no drive, mend a screen in a building that has none, or replace a pane that is not broken. Nothing here suggests breaking something in order to repair it. Twenty minutes with the whole list, walking from room to room and then round the outside, tells you which options are genuinely open to you, and it is the single most useful thing you can do before starting this badge.
6 parts
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2(c). Caulk cracks or joints open to the weather Optional May not apply Often forgotten THE WEATHER CAN CLOSE THIS OPTION, AND THE BADGE NEVER MENTIONS WEATHER. Exterior caulk needs the surface dry and the air above a minimum temperature, and the tube tells you which. The same is true of the concrete and asphalt repair in 2(d), and of painting outside trim if you choose that route in 3(d). In a cold wet month these are not slow, they are impossible, and the sealant will fail rather than simply take longer. If you are starting this badge in autumn, do the outdoor work first and leave the indoor menus for winter.
Stage 3 of 8
1 step
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3. Woodwork and fixing things: choose three of seven Requirement
Four are open to anybody, because you build or repair something rather than waiting for it to fail. Three need the fault to exist: a sagging door, a loose step, a fence. Painting here shares its whole kit with requirement 6(a).
7 parts
Stage 4 of 8
1 step
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4. Electrical: choose two of four Often forgotten Requirement
The menu where the choice matters most. Two of the four involve no live house wiring, and two is exactly what this requirement asks for, so it can be met in full without opening a wall.
TWO OF THESE FOUR ARE WORK ON LIVE HOUSE WIRING AND TWO ARE NOT, AND YOU ONLY NEED TWO. Locating the main switch box and knowing how to reset a breaker or replace a fuse involves no wiring at all. Replacing a cord or repairing a plug or lamp socket is an unplugged appliance on a table. Those two together satisfy this requirement completely. Installing a single-pole light switch and replacing a wall outlet are both work inside a wall box on a house circuit. If you choose either, switch off at the breaker and confirm the circuit is dead before touching anything, because a wall switch being off is not the same as the circuit being off. Note also that some places require a permit or a licensed electrician for work on fixed wiring whoever is supervising: what the badge allows and what local law allows are separate questions.
4 parts, 1 ticked
Stage 5 of 8
1 step
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5. Water: shut it off, then choose two of five Often forgotten Requirement
The stem is not a heading. Before the two lettered jobs you must locate the main water source and know how to turn it off, well pumps included, and that part is compulsory. It is also new since the printed book.
THE FIRST LINE OF THIS REQUIREMENT IS A JOB, NOT A HEADING. Before the two lettered choices, you are asked to locate the main water source and know how to turn it off, well pumps included. It is compulsory and it is not one of the five options. It is easy to miss because requirements 2, 3, 4 and 6 all open with a supervision clause and go straight into their lists, so by the time you reach 5 the eye skips the first line. Do it properly: find the valve, turn it, and check that it actually moves. A stopcock that has not been touched in fifteen years often will not, and finding that out during a burst pipe is the wrong time. If your water comes from a well, shutting it off means the pump too, and that is an electrical switch somewhere else entirely.
5 parts
Stage 6 of 8
1 step
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6. Inside the house: choose three of eight Requirement
The largest menu here. Patching drywall and anchoring into drywall are one wall and one afternoon, which is two of the three. A house of plaster or masonry closes the patch and changes the anchors.
8 parts
Stage 7 of 8
1 step
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7. A career, or a hobby Requirement
One of two, and this requirement does not exist in the 2025 printed book at all. Both routes are desk work and neither needs a tool, so this is the part to do while paint dries or a part is on order.
2 parts
Stage 8 of 8
1 step
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Counselor signs it off Milestone
The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.
Usually comes after 7. A career, or a hobby.
Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.
This plan is a planning aid: the current Boy Scouts of America publication is always the authority, and the sources used here are listed in full. Each step names its own.