DIY Tips and Links

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My Favourite Tools

• SDS Drill. The one I use is a (take a deep breath!) BOSCH GBH 2-26DRE 2kg 230V SDS Plus Drill.
  It is SO simple to use. It basically has three settings:
  
  • Rotary - for regular drilling in softer materials
  • Hammer drill - goes through concrete like it's not there!
  • "Rotary stop" or "chisel mode", which turns it from a drill into a mini-breaker. Perfect (with the right attachments) for chiseling out small areas of concrete or taking out old pointing on a patio!
  Comfortable, easy to use, reliable - just does what it says it will, effortlessly and 100% reliably.
• Electric Planer.You can't really do jobs like planing doors down to size without one of these, and this one is simply the business. Again, the only slightly complex thing about it is its name! Mine is a Bosch GHO 26-82 2.6mm Planer. I've had it for over a year now, and apart from the fact that I think I now need to replace the blade, I've never had any reason to complain about it. It's simple to adjust the planing depth, from 0.1mm to 2.6mm, and it has its own dust bag. OK, it doesn't catch every grain of sawdust, but it catches most of it! There are jobs I simply couldn't do without it, and it's less than £100 and comes with a three year warranty!

DIY Hints & Tips

• A couple of tips on the subject of "lubrication" to get us started:
  • Lubricate screws that are hard to drive in with a little vaseline - stops them rusting too!
  • When moving heavy washing machines, cookers etc across the kitchen floor, put a little washing up liquid under their feet (but remember to clean it up afterwards!)
• Loft insulation
  • A few years ago, all you had to worry about was putting four inches (100mm) of regular insulation between your joists in the loft, and that was all that was required. The Government now recommend three times that amount. I'm sure it does a great job of insulating your home, and far be it from me to say that that is a bad thing. However, if you want to use your loft for storage, it's pretty much impossible to board the loft when the insulation is eight inches above the joists.
  • However, I've recently discovered a new material called "Spaceboard", which is a rigid type of insulation. This can be laid over the top of existing "regular" insulation, resting on the joists. Boards can then be laid on top, secured by screwing through the Spaceboard into the joists.
  • I've used it with one customer already - it's easy to fit and gives the best of both worlds - better insulation and a loft that can still be used for storage.
  • Read more at their web site.
• Drilling through tiles
  • If you have porcelain tiles, get a diamond drill bit - nothing else will get through them!
    And drill SLOWLY with it, or it'll burn out in minutes, costing you a small fortune!
  • For regular tiles, stick a piece of masking tape on the wall and mark the desired location of the hole on this - your pencil or pen mark is much less likely to rub off.
  • Leave the masking tape on when you start drilling - the drill bit is less likely to slip.
  • To further reduce the chance of the drill bit slipping on the tiles, try to scratch the surface of the glaze with the point of a sharp knife, just at the point where you need to drill.
  • Once you have your hole drilled, slice the heads off your rawl plugs and push them well into the holes, beyond the tiles. That way, when they expand as screws are driven into them, there's less chance that they'll crack the tiles.
• Hanging blinds
  • If you're hanging a roller blind (the type with the pull chord at one side to raise and lower the blind), and - despite double checking that it's level - the fabric snags around the winding mechanism at one end or the other, I got a great tip from the good people at Apollo Blinds the other day. Simply unroll the blind fully (in situ), and at the end opposite to where it snags, stick a piece of off-cut fabric onto the metal pole. If you don't have a matching piece of fabric, I found it works with two or three strips of masking tape. Then roll the blind up as normal - if the problem is solved, great! If it's only partially solved, unroll it, and stick a longer piece of fabric (or tape) over the top of the first one. This is so simple, yet works really well in my experience!
• Stripping Wallpaper
  • If you have the pleasurable experience of stripping wallpaper off a ceiling to look forward to, here's one very simple tip. Wear Marigolds! I know it'll do your street cred no good at all, but when you're holding a steamer above head height all day, sooner or later a certain amount of scalding hot water is going to end up running down your arm. Marigolds make the whole thing a lot less painful (if also a lot less fashionable!).
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