Diy s.o.s

DWhite1

Hi All,

As some of you may have seen in my previous posts im in the process of buying my first house.

As far as DIY is concerned, my experience is non-existent. We have a budget to re-do the whole house, as far as replacing exterior doors, bathroom, kitchen update etc... I was just wondering if anyone has any money saving tips?

Ideally we will be doing as much work ourselves with the help of family as possible, but there are certain things we cannot cut corners with e.g. front door fitting, carpet fitting... But any suggestions or pointers on what to avoid or what is surprisingly easy would be a great help!

Thanks in advance!

LandyAndy

The first area where there is plenty of scope to DiY and save money is decorating. If you are prepared to take your time decent results can be obtained and even if you get it wrong you won't have caused any serious damage either to you or the property (unlike getting plumbing or electrics wrong)

DWhite1

Thanks Andy,

we will definitely be decorating ourselves, also fitting laminate flooring, updating the kitchen, possibly even having a go at fitting carpets in the small spare room which is almost a perfect square shaped room. Its more things like fitting doors, changing skirting boards, tiling that we aren't sure on if we can give it a go ourselves?

LandyAndy

DWhite1 wrote: »

Thanks Andy,

we will definitely be decorating ourselves, also fitting laminate flooring, updating the kitchen, possibly even having a go at fitting carpets in the small spare room which is almost a perfect square shaped room. Its more things like fitting doors, changing skirting boards, tiling that we aren't sure on if we can give it a go ourselves?

I have hung internal doors myself, drawing on nothing more than two terms of school woodwork in about 1970. It is a pretty simple process but you need to take your time. I'm sure there will be plenty of instruction on YouTube.


Skirting boards similarly.


I've also done a bit of tiling but I think that is an area where a professional is more likely to do a significantly better job than an amateur especially if the surfaces are complicated

missile

DWhite1 wrote: »

....we will definitely be ...... fitting laminate flooring, ......

Not as easy as you might think :eek:

Jackmydad

I'd say that you need to start with easy jobs that aren't going to transform into a "disaster" if you get it wrong.
You need the right tools, a good idea of how to tackle the work, and common sense to tackle most jobs.
Be aware of your own capabilities.
If you're using YouTube, find UK based advice rather than American.
Basic safety equipment is absolutely essential.
Power tools are nice, but not absolutely necessary for a lot of jobs.
Personally I'd leave changing external doors until you have more experience.

Jonesya

Get yourself catalogues from Toolstation and Screwfix, they are a lot cheaper than the sheds for some items.

Avoid white oil based gloss, the modern formulations yellow badly.

MX5huggy

The only thing I wouldn!!!8217;t try is plastering, anything else I think I may take 100times longer than a pro but the finish will be equal.

Bigphil1474

OP, skirting can be easy or a real pain. I did our living room no problem, looks spot on. The bedroom was a nightmare - one wall looks way off and I could never get it looking right so we put the bed against that wall. Depends on the age of what's there as well, but it's basically attaching a straight bit of wood onto the bottom of your wall, so generally not hard.
Tiling is fairly easy IMO, but you need to start small if you have no experience. Mainly about good prepping, and getting the first line straight. The first bit of tiling I did in our house was around the cooker in the chimney breast - only about 40 tiles, and we used cheapo ones as that was all we could afford. The last job I did was half of the bathroom using expensive tiles and it turned out okay.
Depending where you buy your carpets, you may be able to wangle free fitting.
Do a list of what needs doing, and in what order. Sounds obvious, but I've slipped up before doing jobs in the wrong order.
Depends on your house, but in mine we have to avoid any wallpaper with stripes or straight lines at all - our house is v. wonky so anything like that shows up. Also, if you are gonna be there for years, it's worth putting the extra effort in, if not, don't.
One safety tip - buy a detector device for wiring and pipes. Worth every penny.

samogotchi

We were in the same position this time a year ago, and it is daunting. I would say, start slowly and go upwards from there. Learn as much as you can before you start a job, watch tutorials and read books.
Laying laminate is relatively easy, and definitely doable yourself - remember to measure twice and cut once, buy a bit more than you need and take it slowly - if you're tired the complex stuff only goes wrong. You get a better finish if skirting is done after.
Skirting - not overtly difficult, but depends on what's going on on walls underneath (i.e. the surface in our house was uneven). Measure twice cut once, and don't expect what looks like a 90 degree angle to be exactly that.
Doors - time consuming, fiddly - tbh I might advocate that if you have a fair number of interior doors to do (we had 6), then it's better to get a joiner in for the day. It's made a lot harder if you flip doors. This is one that I would avoid, it is doable (I did two in my house, joiner did 4), but takes a while.
Tiling - not done it yet - but that's next on my list.

Practice makes perfect - your first few will take longer and not be as good, but things do get easier and start to look better eventually.