11 common DIY fails – and how to avoid them..

When you decide you put your home up for sale, one thing we always encourage is to take a good look around and assess your home through the eyes of a stranger. Living in one place for years and years can create a certain degree of blindness – we stop noticing the chips in the paintwork, the wall where little Rex drew jolly pictures that never quite wiped clean, the light fitting that’s not quite flush with the ceiling… the list goes on. These little things don’t mean the house is unsound, of course, but do raise flags – both conscious and subconscious – to viewers that there is work to be done, and if there are visible signs of a lack of upkeep, what might be invisible?

We have a whole list of local trades we are confident to recommend to sort any small, or large, jobs out you decide need doing, but if you want to Do It Yourself, there are some steps to take before tackling any job, to make sure you don’t create extra work, and stress, for yourself.

1. When painting, always take the time to protect the surrounding area

Have you any idea how hard it is to get paint off a carpet? REALLY hard. And costly. And can you imagine the reaction you’d get if a quick touch up of the ceiling resulted in polka dot sofas and chairs? Before you get close to dipping a brush in the paint, clear out or drape any furniture with old sheets or towels (or buy dust sheets from your local DIY store) Use Frog tape along edges to ensure the paint doesn’t slip where you don’t want it, and to ensure cloths covering carpets don’t slip. 

2. Check your paint colours

Paint colours can change over time. Open fires, cooking, smoking, time can all affect painted walls, so if you’ve kept tins of paint from when you last decorated that space, don’t be surprised if you’re not getting an exact match. Equally, paint left in a tin for a long time can change – it thickens, separates, ages. On walls, it’s better to repaint than touch up if you’re covering marks in easy line of sight areas. Take your paint tin to the local DIY and get a new batch mixed up.

3. Check your paint type

Use the wrong type of paint and you’ll have to start again. When it comes to touching up, check you’re using the same paint type as you used the first time. Gloss or satinwood on door frames, etc, and if you used Matt paint on the walls last time, make sure you use Matt again – little brushstrokes of Silk will really stand out.

4. Check your measurements

accurate. If you’re asking someone else to measure something, check to be sure they use millimetres too; 60mm is very different from 60 inches. This applies whether you’re measuring wallpaper, widths of tiles, lengths of skirting or entire walls.

5. Make sure you have the right kit

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting halfway through aYou’ll have heard the phrase “measure twice, cut once”? Even frequent DIY-ers and trades have been known to get measurements wrong, which can be very costly. So just take a moment to measure, make a note, then measure again. And stick to one measuring unit. Millimetres are usually the most straightforward job and realising you don’t have the right tools to hand. If you’re refixing a light fitting into the ceiling, or rehanging a curtain rail, the last thing you need when it’s dangling on one side is to realise you need a rawlplug, or a different length screw. Just take ten minutes before you start to work though what you’re going to be doing, and make sure you have everything lined up close to hand.

6. Read the instructions

Is this a particularly male thing? Perhaps! Overconfidence can lead to trouble where instructions are concerned. Flatpack nightmares haunt more than one of us, so before assembling that bookcase, or set of drawers, or even a garden bench, read the instructions, lay everything out and check it’s all there. If you’re still a little unsure – do a search on YouTube, there’s always some clever pants who’s made a video of how to do what you want to do!

7. Use a spirit level

Putting up a shelf, hanging a painting (big ones require two hanging points, be aware), straightening a curtain rail… Lots of DIY jobs require a straight horizontal line, so invest in a spirit level and ensure people on viewings don’t view your shelves with fear.

8. Know where your wiring is

This is a dangerous mistake to make. Drilling into or nailing into wiring can cause at least a fuse box blowout, or worse. If you’re putting up shelves, hanging a picture or mounting a cupboard, and you’re not sure where the wiring might be in that wall, call in an electrician to check for you. They have the kit to keep us safe.

9. Use ladders safely

We’re all guilty of this, just nipping up a stepladder to get to the top of a cupboard, or propping a ladder up against the house to scoop debris from a gutter. But not all of us get away with it. Figures show that around 48,000 people end up in A&E after a ladder-related accident in their own home. Follow some basic rules: always have someone else there to foot the ladder; never stretch sideways – move the ladder; and if you still can’t reach, call in a tradesperson. 

10. Plumbing: do your research first  

Fixing dripping taps, or replacing taps, are the most common DIY fails, according to research by Selco Builders Warehouse, who asked their tradespeople clients what DIY botch-jobs they are most frequently called in to fix. If you haven’t done it before, there’s no shame in calling in an expert. An at-pressure water leak can cause major trauma!

11. Fixing broken tiles

Oh, this can go horribly wrong. If you have a single broken tile in a bathroom, it’s probably best to just make sure it’s thoroughly clean and leave it where it is. If you have a few, and they’ve gotten stained, call in an expert to work out the best, most economical way to replace them. Attempting to chip them out yourself and replace them with new tiles can be messy, dangerous (you need goggles and gloves) and very time-consuming.

Eddie – Friday 10th March 2023 – (Picture used from Darley Road, Old Trafford).