Practical do it yourself articles

Carpentry

• Dado rails
• Locks
  • Euro Cylinder door lock replacement
  • Lock - Mortise
  • Lock - Latch
  • Lock - Rim
• Picture rails
• Shelving
  • Shelving materials
  • Shelving using brackets
  • Shelving in a corner
  • Shelving in an alcove
• Staircases explained and their repair

Decorating

• Flooring
  • Timber floor finishes
  • Removing old finishes
  • Sanding wooden floors
  • Staining wooden flooring
  • Varnishing wooden floorboards
    
    
    
• Painting
  • Painting flush wooden doors
  • Painting wooden panel doors
    
    
  • Painting wooden casement windows
    
  • Painting wooden sash windows
    
    
  • Preparing walls and ceilings
  • more ,,,,,,,,,,,,,
    
    
• Tiling
  • Ceramic tiles explained
  • Cutting ceramic wall tiles
  • Estimating tile finishing strip
  • Fixing ceramic wall tiles
  • Estimating wall tiles
  • Grouting wall tiles
  • Preparing surfaces for tiling
  • Setting out ceramic wall tiles
    
    
• Wallpapering
  • How many rolls?
  • Preparing walls
  • Stripping wallpaper
  • Cutting and pasting
  • Hanging wallpaper
  • more..........

Out of doors

• Cladding with timber and uPVC planks.
  
  
• Concrete design - a guide to the thickness, sub-base, slope etc.
  
  
• Cement mixing - by hand, mixer or using ready mix.
  
  
• Garden arch - plans and instructions.
  
  
• Garden Decking
  • Simple low level decking.
  • Planning garden decking.
    
    
• Laying paving blocks - a guide to laying pavers.
  

Plumbing

• Ball valves:
  • Ball valves explained
  • Slider type ball valve washer replacement
• Glossary of Plumbing terms
• Lavatories:
  • Cistern - modern direct action (syphon) lavatory cistern
  • Cistern - modern flap flush valve lavatory cistern
  • Cistern - old style Burlington Bell type lavatory cistern
  • Common problems with lavatory cisterns
  • Replacing a flap valve in a direct action cistern
• Taps
  • Connecting ½ and ¾ inch taps
  • Fitting ½ and ¾ inch taps
  • Fitting Mono-block mixer taps
• Waste water fittings:
  • Baths
  • Hand basins
  • Sinks
• Waste water traps

General Building

• Concrete
  
  • Metric volume calculator
  • Metric material calculator
  • Imperial volume calculator
  • Imperial material calculator
    
• Laying pavers
• Plasterboard:
  • Types of plasterboard
  • Cutting plasterboard
  • Filling joints
  • Finishing corners
• Plaster ceilings
• Plaster walls
• Plaster repairs:
  • Lath and plaster wall repairs
  • Plaster wall repairs (large)
  • Plaster wall repairs (small)
  • Repairing large holes in stud walls or ceilings
  • Repairing small holes in stud walls
    
• Roofing:
  • Felting and battening
  • Repairing plain tile roofs
  • Repairing slate roofs
  • Roofing glossary
  • Using interlocking tiles
  • Using plain tiles
  • Using ridge tiles
  • Using slates

Plans
(FREE woodworking plans)

• For Children - toys and things
• For the bedroom
• For the garden and outdoors
• For the kitchen
• For the workshop