DIY stores have expanded rapidly over the last few years as many people resort to doing work in their homes themselves in an effort to save money. Where once a homeowner might have just wielded a paint brush, they are now fitting floors themselves and even carrying out tasks such as making modifications to the plumbing or electrics in their home.

All this means that the standard of workmanship in some homes is downright appalling and what may look good on the surface, generally hides a botch job underneath. It’s for this reason that we’d always recommend getting a thorough survey before buying a house. And if you need to do a job in the house, make sure you’re capable of doing the job and have the right skills. If you don’t know what you’re doing, get a tradesman to do the job and you’ll also get a better finish.

One of the easiest ways to spruce up a room is to give it a lick of paint. Painting a room doesn’t take a lot of time, just a little effort and a little dedication. If you plan well ahead you can give the room a new lease of life in just a day.

1. In the few days prior to decorating start to remove ornaments from the room and give it a good clean.
2. If the wood work (skirtings/windows don’t need painting just give them a wipe over
3. Emulsion paint can be applied using brushes or a roller if you want a speedy job
4. Cover all the things that can’t be removed from the room such as carpets and sofas before you begin
5. Paint all the tricky bits first and then fill in the gaps
6. If you have to paint over the walls again to get even coverage

We don’t normally advocate the use of one-coat paints, but if you want a job done quickly, these are the best type to go for.

After spending a fortune on bottled water over the last few years, we thought we’d try an undersink water filter.

Most big water filter brands now offer an undersink water filter solution. Either in-line with your cold water supply or via a separate drinking water tap. The kit we installed was the 3M Taste Master Plus.

The kit contained:

• A chrome tap
• An in-line filter
• An easy fit connector (to connect to your cold supply)
• All the connecting tubes and screws etc

The kit was really easy to fit (you do need some DIY knowledge) and the included tap is one of the better ones on the market. The filter sits neatly under the sink and you don’t have to turn off the water to change the filter (every six months) which is a bonus.

So, does it make a difference to the water quality? You can definately tell the difference, with the most notable point the reduction in the taste of chlorine. But the water also tastes better and looks clearer too.

The tap has just been installed. It remains to be seen how it performs over the next couple of years.

If you are about to start decorating one of the rooms in your home, it may be worthwhile taking a step back to work out your plan of attack.

Preparation is the key

Before you open any of the cans of paint you have purchased from your DIY store you should look at a few things:

• Are your electrical sockets in the right places?
• Do you need to strip any wallpaper from the walls?
• Make sure all surfaces that are to be painted are sanded so that they provide a key for the new paint to attach to.
• Take out all items from the room that can be easily removed
• Cover the floor with suitable dust sheets

If you dive headlong into the painting you won’t get the best results from your DIY project.

When you have laid all the planks, you can fit the beading around the edges of the room. Beading is usually available in the same colour as the floor you have chosen and simply needs to be tacked into place to the skirting. The beading provides a nice finish to the floor as well as hiding the expansion gap.

Next you have to fit the room threshold. Thresholds can also be bought in the same type of wood as your floor covering or in aluminium or brass types. The threshold differentiates where the floor ends and is usually fitted at doorways. If you have different types of floor coverings in the room, you can also buy thresholds that are really long in length so can divide a room perfectly.

We have talked a lot about finding the right type of wooden flooring and leaving it to acclimatise, be we have said little about fitting a wooden floor over the last three articles. In this article we will discuss fitting a wooden floor over a concrete subfloor.

When you fit a wooden floor over a concrete subfloor you need to make sure you use a damp proof membrane between the floor and the subfloor. If you don’t, damp will rise into the wood from the concrete and cause buckling and warping. After installing the damp proof membrane you can lay the underlay and then start to lay your wooden floor.

If you are using click flooring, the planks will go down easily, you just need to make sure you leave an expansion gap so the floor can float.

When you have decided on a type of wooden flooring and have had the flooring delivered to your home, it’s imperative that the flooring is left in the room where it will be fitted for a minimum of 48 hours. This is called acclimatising the flooring.

Wooden flooring will have been kept in completely different conditions to the conditions in your home. The temperature and the humidity in the warehouse where the flooring has been stored may make the flooring contract or expand when it warms up. If you fit the flooring before you leave time for this to happen to the individual planks, the floor may buckle or warp when fitted and hence your newly fitted floor will be ruined.

In the last article we gave you some information on the different types of wooden floor. In this article we will discuss different fitting methods.

Floating floors

Floating wooden floors are not fixed to the subfloor and as such ‘float’ on the underlay you have used. The reason a floor is left floating is because is it will expand or contract as necessary due to changes in temperature or humidity. Floating floors are easy to fit and if you are competent at DIY you can do the job yourself.

Tongue and groove

Some wooden floors fit together using the tongue and groove method. One side of the plank has a tongue and the other a groove. The tongue is glued into the grove of the adjacent plank creating a solid floor surface.

Click flooring

Click flooring doesn’t use adhesive, the floor just clicks together using an ingenious rebate along the edge of the planks. Click wooden floor is one of the easiest types of flooring to fit.

If you have decided to fit a wooden flooring one of the rooms in your home you will first need to be aware of a few things before you decide on the type of wood. Are you looking for a safety flooring?

Solid wooden flooring

Solid wooden flooring is as the name suggests made out of solid pieces of wood. It is great to use in any room except the bathroom and with new types available that can be ‘clicked’ together, fitting is easy too.

Engineered wooden flooring

Engineered wooden flooring uses a layer of real wood on top of a substrate of wood composites. This makes the flooring more structurally stable than other types of wooden floor so it can be used where there are rapid changes of temperature in the room such as the conservatory.

With Halloween coming up fast the kids are getting ready to make their Jack o’ Lanterns which is a nice fun thing to get all the kids to do. So what you will need to make one is a pumpkin some news papers, a pen, a sharp knife, a spoon and a tea light. Start by covering your work surface with news paper because it will get messing which is part of the fun then using a pen draw on the pumpkin your scary face. now this is a bit of a adult to do using the knife cut the top off the pumpkin. now the kids can remover all of the seeds using a spoon (you can save the insides to make a pumpkin pie yummy) now you have removed all of the filling you can start cutting out the spooky face again a job for an adult once all of the face has been cut out you can put the tea light inside it but always remember to pop the lid back on the pumpkin and never leave a candle burning on its own