absolute beginner

trailingspouse

My OH is out of the country for 10 months, and we/I am about to move house. There will, of course, be plenty to do to the place, and my OH is a dab hand at most plumbing/electric/DIY jobs. But he won't be around. I feel confident when it comes to painting and decorating, but at a bit of a loss when it comes to anything else. Can anyone recommend a book/website on how to do 'ordinary' DIY jobs (for anything technical I'll have to pay someone) - I'd like to be able to manage on my own as much as I can.

Ebe_Scrooge

The Readers Digest DIY book is pretty good for the basic stuff. But a better idea may be to see if your local college runs evening classes in DIY - they're quite popular, and will give you some reasonably good practical lessons.

You mention plumbing and electrics - minor repairs / alterations are very easy as long as you take sensible precautions ( turn off the water / power at the mains, etc. ). With electrics in particular there are now some fairly strict rules as to what you can do yourself. Replacing like-for-like is OK ( e.g. replacing a light switch, or socket ). And I *think* you can install a spur off a ring main ( I'm prepared to be corrected on that one ). Sorry, old-school DIY-er here who has completely rewired his own houses since a young age with no ill-effects !! You'd need to check the regs - though from the tone of your post, I'm guessing you'd only be doing minor things anyway.

But there's no substitute for experience and being shown how to do it - which is why I think night-classes may be a better approach than just reading a book. But for small jobs, there's nothing difficult about it - just be methodical, take your time and use common-sense safety precautions. Hope this helps.

diywhynot

trailingspouse wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a book/website on how to do 'ordinary' DIY jobs (for anything technical I'll have to pay someone) - I'd like to be able to manage on my own as much as I can.

Examples of two websites i.e. DIYnot, Ultimate Handyman.

Stooby2

And there's a dozen YouTube videos for almost every job these days.

gibson123

Make friends with your local DIY store, not the big names the little corner store. My local one is family run. I have learned so much from them, I have taken in broken and rusted parts, and asked for advice on things as diverse as how do I stop a tap dripping to what do I do with stains in the corner of the kitchen, to how do I change a broken socket, everything explained in great detail and I ahve even taken "portable" projects in so they can see for themselves.