Another Bank Holiday approaches and what do we associate Bank Holidays with? Taking on DIY jobs around the house! DIY activities are even more in mind now that we have spent 2 months inside our homes looking at the walls and realising what needs doing.
DIY chains like Homebase and B&Q have stores that are open again, as well as being open online for Click & Collect or Home Delivery. Demand has been huge but the stores are well organised for Covid protection with disinfectant sprays, hand sanitiser, 2 metre spacing for customers and screens to guard staff at their tills.
There are local hardware stores where you may get served more quickly, with good old-fashioned customer service and you will find a great range of stock, such as The Venture & Ironmongers in Rusthall, R.N Carr Ltd in Southborough and wonderful Wadhurst Ironmongers .
In this article we will look at some of the most popular projects and give some handy hints and tips to make them go more smoothly.
Painting & Decorating
Painting is perhaps the most popular DIY activity. Nothing says Spring like a fresh lick of paint and some new colour in your home. Pinterest is a great source of decorating inspiration. Surprisingly painting a room isn’t as simple as it seems especially if you are painting the whole room. Here are some simple hints and tips:
· Ceiling first! This sounds obvious but often people will put off painting the ceiling and attempt to paint the walls first or do the walls and then realise the ceiling actually needed a lick of paint too. When painting your ceiling ensure you cover all the carpets and furniture to prevent splatter. Use a roller with a double arm frame as this gives better support across the roller and will give a more even coat.
· Walls will need cutting in carefully around the ceiling, especially if you are using a different colour. You don’t want to have to go back and cover up any excess paint smudges on the ceiling. If you are feeling brave you could use masking tape on the ceiling to prevent this from happening. If not then buy a good quality cutting in brush with an angle on it and follow the guide given here. It might take some practice before you perfect it but a good cutting in technique will give you lovely straight and crisp edges. Don’t worry too much about painting onto the woodwork as you can correct this when you paint that unless using a very dark on-trend colour such as Farrow & Ball’s Downpipe.
· Woodwork can be painted once the walls are dry. For skirting boards you can mask at the top to prevent your gloss paint getting on the walls. If you’ve had to sand the wood to remove cracked or flaked paint, then ensure any bare wood is primed properly before glossing. Make sure any nail holes are filled and that the corners are properly filled if they have cracks or gaps. You will also need to protect your carpet, e.g. using more masking tape to protect this area too.
Wallpapering
Wallpapering is another popular decorating job and can make a big difference to a room even if used on just one wall. The key to wallpapering is to have the right tools and plan a little in advance. Tools you need are:
· Dust sheet
· Filling knife and filler
· Sandpaper
· Spirit level
· Tape measure
· Pencil
· Wallpaper scissors
· Seam roller
· Pasting brush
· Pasting table
· Bucket
· Wallpaper smoothing brush
· Trimming wheel or sharp craft knife
· Ladder
· Screwdriver
· Wallpaper paste
The first thing you need to do is calculate how much wallpaper you need. The last thing you want is to run out of wallpaper before you have finished. It is critical to check batch numbers on the paper you buy as all rolls have to be from the same batch to avoid potential colour variations. Prepare your walls for papering by filling in any holes or cracks and sanding them down to leave a smooth finish. For particularly bad walls you can apply lining paper first to make the wall surface better, remember to hang lining paper horizontally. Give the walls a good clean to remove any dust and debris which might prevent the wallpaper adhesive sticking properly causing bubbles in the paper.
Where to place the first piece of wallpaper depends on what you are doing. If you are only doing one wall then start in the centre and work out towards the corners. If you are doing the whole room then start in an inconspicuous corner as this is where the last seam will be and it is likely that the pattern won’t match up at this seam so you want it to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Use a spirit level to draw a straight line on your wall. If starting in a corner draw the line so that you will have a small overlap onto the adjoining wall, e.g. if your wallpaper is 53cm wide then draw the line 50cm from the corner to allow a 3cm overlap. It is vital to have this straight line to ensure that your wallpaper is hung perfectly straight. Measure the height of the wall from the skirting to the ceiling and add around 10cm to allow for wonky floors and ceilings. Cut your paper to size and apply the wallpaper paste. Make sure you apply a good amount and don’t miss anywhere. Give the paste a few minutes to soak in before offering the paper to the wall. Position the paper exactly against the line you have drawn and smooth it onto the wall with the wallpaper smoother working from the top to the bottom and the centre to the edges to remove any bubbles. Once the paper has been hung use the seam roller to press the seams to the wall. If you don’t do this the seams can separate and leave gaps. Trim off excess wallpaper at the top and the bottom using either the sharp knife or the scissors to get a nice straight edge. For the second piece, match the pattern but allow enough paper at the top to overlap the ceiling. This will cause waste but is a necessary evil. Once you have the paper cut to size repeat as for the first piece ensuring that the pattern matches perfectly. It is important to smooth the paper and to roll the seams. Here is a great guide to walk you through the rest of the room and some of the harder parts to wallpaper.
Flooring
Carpets wear out over time and trends have changed over the years. Wooden or laminate floors are more fashionable than ever. If you are considering ripping up the old carpet and laying laminate flooring, here are a few pointers, as always is making sure you have everything you need:
· Saw – can be a hand saw or a jig saw with a specific laminate floor blade. Using other types of blades will damage the flooring
· Pencil
· Tape measure
· Underlay
· Spacers
· Pull bar
· Hammer
· Tapping block
· Square
· Pipe collars
· Floor trims
· Laminate threshold bar
· Laminate Flooring
Prepare your boards
You will need to allow your boards to acclimatise to the room environment for about 48 hours before laying them. This is very important as the flooring has time to adjust to the temperature and humidity in the room which will reduce the amount of expansion or contraction once the floor is laid. Please check the humidity in your room, if the room is too humid, after plastering or painting work, for example, then wait before laying the laminate as the humidity might be too high to suit the laminate.
Prepare your floor
Take up any previous floor coverings and give the floor a good sweep. Fix any issues with gaps, large holes or nails or screws protruding if the floor is wood. If you have a concrete floor then it would pay to lay a dampproof layer over it before laying your laminate. Do, however, check the moisture level in the concrete as moisture can cause expansion issues with the laminate. Less than 3% in concrete floors is where it needs to be.
Lay the underlay
Underlay is important for several reasons: It smooths out minor imperfections in the floor; it adds some thermal insulation and it will absorb the impact from footfall and reduce noise as well as wear and tear on the laminate floor.
Laying the Boards
Place spacers against the skirting board to ensure there is a 10mm gap around the board. You need this gap as the boards will naturally expand and contract as the temperature varies, without the gap the boards will have nowhere to go when they expand and this could cause the whole floor to buckle. Before you lay the first board measure your room. You need to ensure that there is at least 300mm of board after a joint so you need to
