You can fix it, we can help - it's a DIY win-win

During the boom we called on a professional to do every little DIY job around the home. Now, to save money, more and more people are taking things into their own hands – with the experts’ assistance

WITH MONEY TIGHT we’re getting to grips with household tasks we used to consider beneath us. Painting, plumbing, attic insulation and all manner of DIY are now essential skills and we’re even wrestling with the power drill, all in an effort to keep costs down.

During the Tiger years we didn’t repair, explains David Baker, owner of Decwells DIY (01-478 1377) and chairman of the Expert Hardware group. Now we do and the repair and maintenance side of his business is up 30 to 35 per cent on 2007 figures, reflecting cash-strapped customers’ need to do jobs themselves in order to save money.

Decwells’ biggest sellers are keys. Vent keys for radiators are popular, as regularly vented radiators (once a week is recommended) operate more efficiently. And metre keys are also selling well. “Energy users are now checking their readings as often as weekly and calling the figures into the relevant energy supplier rather than paying an estimated bill,” Baker says.

Now that water meters are being introduced we all need to learn how to fix leaks, especially in taps and cisterns. A leaking tap or cistern can leak 184 litres in a week. “All you need to fix a leaking tap is a half-inch washer, which costs €2 for a pack of two,” says Baker.

DIY for women

Niall Hughes is handy around the house. After doing an apprenticeship in bricklaying at Dún Laoghaire College of Further Education (DLCDE), he bought his first house.He put down all the timber floors, did all the tiling, put up shelves, hung pictures, curtains and blinds and even insulated the attic. He learned on the job, consulting an encyclopaedia of DIY purchased at Eason’s. He regards the experience as another apprenticeship. Now he’s teaching DIY classes for women at the DLCDE as women represent 70 per cent of the hardware-buying business in Ireland, according to the Expert Hardware group.

Women assimilate information differently to men, Hughes contends. “They need to get it right in their heads before tackling a job, whereas men jump straight in. Many find it therapeutic.”

In his present home Hughes has insulated the attic, painted the walls, erected a greenhouse out the back, put up shelves in the garage, built and fitted a kitchen he made from sheets of melamine and put down kitchen and bathroom floors. The net value of the jobs done is about €30,000 with materials costing approximately €17,000.

With the right guidance and tools, putting up a shelf is easy, he says. You need a cordless drill and an assortment of bits, rawl plugs, a spirit level to make sure its even, a pencil, a measuring tape and a small hammer. You also need to be able to identify the different types of walls. A plasterboard wall doesn’t have the same grip as a concrete wall.

“If you’re putting pictures on plasterboard walls you will need a spring-toggle rawl plug, a device that works like an anchor opening out into three points once it has penetrated the wall and using those three points to secure its position. Before drilling, draw a perpendicular line with your eye up and down from any light switches and plug sockets as these contain live wires.”

** DIY for Women is a 10-week course that runs on Tuesday evenings from 5.45pm to 7.45pm, The next course starts on February 7th, 2012. The cost is €149, which is fully inclusive of all equipment and tools. Full details are available online at dlcfe.ie or call 01-2809676

Painting gallery

Lucina Lennon runs Enniskerry-based Galerie Lisette with her mother, Aida. The former is an architect, the latter an interior designer. Every Saturday they run a series of upcycling and DIY decorating workshops from their gallery, using paint effects to revitalise old furniture.

Part of the ethos is sustainability and the main ingredient is a bit of hard work on the piece with sandpaper, says Lucina. Start with a rough paper and use a finer grade in between paint coats. After sanding the surface, you apply a water-based all-purpose primer that will go onto MDF, veneer and wood. Colortrend and Rustins both do a good one. This makes the paint glide on. You then build up colour by layering two to three coats of paint to give a nice, rich finish – letting each coat dry before applying the next. The finishing coat is important.“Beeswax will give it a nice, soft finish, an acrylic satin varnish will give more sheen and for a hot colour a gloss lacquer works well. If you’d like the piece to have a distressed finish, a crackle glaze, use a proprietary vanish that will react with the top coat.”

** A one-day workshop, using a demonstration piece costs €75 each. For a weekend, two-day course you are asked to bring your own piece, and apply the ageing and painting techniques to it. Price €140. There is a maximum of five people on any course. Both prices include all materials. For more information call 086-6500757/086-8111745 or see galerielisette.com.

Fix a leaking tap

“Fixing things is like reading a recipe,” says 26-year-old Joyce Fagan. “If you’re handy, use your common sense and can follow instructions.” She learned many of her rudimentary skills – how to wire a plug and deal with an ant infestation – for example, in home economics class.

When fixing a tap you first need to establish where the leak is coming from, she says. “Look under the sink and see which part of the U-bend is leaking. When you establish that you then need to switch off the water mains.” (Do you even know where your mains is?) Using a wrench (Joyce still borrows her father’s tool box) she loosens the pipe following the “righty tighty, lefty loosy” instruction. She uses tutorials on Howstuffworks.com and also finds the advice and comments posted by other users invaluable.

Upholstering

Collette Ward (collettewardinteriors.ie) is a dab hand at upholstery. To re-upholster dining chair seat covers and bed headboards you will need a staple gun and staples from a hardware store. For seats, place the fabric face down flat on a table. Place the seat facing the fabric and trace around it with a piece of tailor’s chalk or a pencil, leaving a gap of an inch for a hem around the edge.

If the fabric is patterned, focus the centre of the pattern at the centre of the seat so that the pattern ends up looking balanced. Cut and repeat for as many chairs as you need to cover. Add a little extra comfort by cutting a piece of Dacron to pad the seat with. You can get this from any good upholstery supplier. Then start stapling. Secure the centre back of the seat first and then staple the centre front and then staple at one-inch increments around the base of the seat. Staple fabric to the timber 2cm from the wood edge. Turn the fabric edge in before you staple to get a neat edge.

It is a good idea to practice first on a piece of wood to get used to the weight and force of the gun. And ask the fabric supplier about metreage as widths vary. Colette often sells remnants and off cuts.

Headboards are less wieldy so get someone to help you move it. The same principles apply. House and Home magazine has a good photo tutorial on how to make a padded headboard.

Online tutorials

Eamon McGrane found replacing the fan on his fan oven a doddle thanks to an online tutorial. You can see what they’re doing, he explains, citing Espares.co.uk as a good resource. His oven is now about seven years old and on its third fan. “The job involved disconnecting the mains and loosening four or five screws. McGrane had some electrical experience so wasn’t fazed by that aspect of the job. “The first time I did it, it took me 20 minutes. The second time it only took 10.” And it’s wise to shop around when ordering parts. His first replacement fan came from a parts dealer in Tipperary. It cost €50. “I got the next one from England and it cost about €28. Both prices included delivery.”

Fix your kitchen

Eamon Kearns fixed up his tired oak-effect kitchen for less than €100. Before, it was dark and horrible, like a bad fake tan, he admits.

Through a friend he heard about Annie Sloan chalk paint, stocked at Upside at The Tram Yard, on Castle Street in Dalkey, Co Dublin (087-2370949), an interior design consultancy that practices the art of upcycling. The paint doesn’t need an undercoat and is applicable even to paint-resistant surfaces such as MDF or high gloss. A litre of paint costs €23 and five litres did all 10 cupboards, five drawers, the kickboards and the kitchen door, with paint to spare. The south-facing room, now a calming duck egg blue, has been transformed.

Hanging pictures

If you don’t want to mark the walls buy Command, a double-sided sticky device that sticks to the wall and also to the picture you’re trying to hang.