3 DIY Jobs That Will Motivate You To Start Your Own DIY Adventure

Carrying out some last minute DIY to leave your home in the best shape possible before a sale can really improve the chances of finding a buyer, but it’s a risky business that a lot of people simply aren’t prepared to take part in. DIY is something that a lot of people find daunting, especially as there are plenty of infamous stories surrounding broken bones and permanently damaged furnishings accessible on the internet, in magazines, or even down the local pub! For those of you who want to change your windows, repaint the bathroom, put up a bit of shelving, de-clutter the garden or perhaps just replace a troublesome door handle, I say this; don’t be afraid to give it a try! If you follow these useful tips on a successful DIY adventure for our selected three common DIY solutions, you’ll be wondering why you ever debated the idea of changing the light bulb yourself in the first place...

Repainting

Painting isn’t difficult at all; it just takes a bit of work and a whole lot of patience. Some of us enjoy painting rooms; in fact there aren’t many people who keep the same colour in every room nowadays. Start by getting some planning done, possibly through web searches or showroom ideas. Next, acquire some samples from your local DIY store and see how they look in your designated room. When you’ve made your choice, get hold of a paint roller, clear the room out, put down a few layers of old newspaper and start painting!

Useful Tip

If you’re struggling with corners and edges or you’re worried about marking door panels or ceilings, put a layer of sticky tape between the wall you’re painting and the area you don’t want to mark!

Shelving

If you’ve got things lying around on the floor or you can’t find somewhere to store you’re vast collection of photo frames, model cars or other bizarre ornaments, an extra shelf can give you the storage space you’re after. Start by finding out what you’re walls are made of, so whether they’re hollow or particularly dense. Get hold of some heavy duty plugs for concrete walls, whilst stud walls only really need hollow fittings. As you’re screwing into walls with shelving, it’s important to make sure you’re aware of any electrical wiring! Get hold of some brackets and you’re piece of shelving and mark out where you want the brackets to go. Once you’ve got your brackets placed, use a spirit level to ensure the shelf is level and won’t have things falling off of it.

Useful Tip

It’s worth spending the cash to ensure you get high quality fittings, as these will give your shelves the security they need to withstand heavier weight.

Wooden Flooring

Flooring is something that depends entirely on your interior design preferences, although I would suggest that you consider laying down wooden or laminate flooring in the future if you plan on making a sale. Wooden flooring is in high demand, especially if its natural floorboards, so having this particular design aspect in your property could really improve its chances! Best of all though, it’s a simple task that seems like much harder work to the DIY novices out there. All you need is some underlay that matches the size demands of your room and the thickness of your new flooring, and of course, you’re new flooring. There should be instructions with the flooring to show you how to put it down, as there’s usually a simply mechanism that locks the separate floorboards together. The hardest part is probably cutting the last pieces so that they fit the required space, so you might want to invest in a wood-cutting tool of some kind. Finally, you’ll need some skirting boards to go around the walls, before you’re work is done!

Useful Tip

If you’re replacing carpet and you find natural floorboards underneath already, make the most of them! You could save money by simply carrying out a varnishing process on your old floorboards.

Mark Jacobs is a construction enthusiast with a background in civil engineering. He writes about his working projects for ML (UK), a south coast based company offering dredging services, steel fabrication, structural engineering services and more.