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If, like me, you are a complete novice at DIY, it can be helpful to have a knowledgeable person on hand. Thankfully my other half has lots of experience in renovating properties and managing land. We’re currently doing an overhaul of a small cottage so I’ve put together some useful tips and pointers to handy tools that can save a lot of time.

Clearing Out

After you’ve had a good look round and decided what you want to do with your property, you may well want to remove cupboards, sideboards and other fixtures. It’s a good idea to turn off the electric before you do so and to check where the pipes and wires are. You’ll need screwdrivers of the cross and flathead variety. Try to locate all of the screws before you start to remove the fixtures so that you know when the object is likely to come apart. Sometimes previous owners may have nailed things in, so use the back of a hammer to pull these out. Occasionally, the only option is to hammer things out of place, but before you do this, double check the wires and plumbing to make sure you won’t do any lasting damage.

Stripping Wallpaper

This weekend, we’ve removed an obscene amount of woodchip wallpaper because parts of it were peeling. Pull off what you can and then reach for the scraper. The long handled scrapers have a razor edge and are excellent for really getting through large areas. Whilst scraping the wallpaper off, you may well create a lot of dust, so wear a mask. Most good DIY sets will include some dust masks.

You may not be able to get the wallpaper off in one, in which case a steamer will come in very handy for getting those pesky bits of backing paper off. You can just sponge water onto the paper using a decorator’s sponge, but if, like us, you’re doing an entire house, this would take far too long. Look at a range of different wallpaper strippers here - they’re all different prices and some are only about £27.

Preparing Walls

Once you’ve stripped the wallpaper, you may well find all sorts of arrangements behind it; paint, plaster, artex, more paint and wallpaper, backing paper, wall sealant or wood. Once you’ve ascertained what you have, you will need to see whether you need to do some plastering, damp proofing or rebuilding before you start to paint - especially if it’s an old house.

Most often, DIY-ers just need to fill in the little nicks with polyfilla, then sand down the wall. If you’re sanding an entire house like us, you’ll need a sanding machine. Otherwise, just put some sandpaper onto a handle and put in the elbow grease. There are a range of handy sanding tools available.

Wallpapering / Painting

Once the walls are prepared, you can do your Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen bit and choose your decoration. For the best wallpaper finish, hang lining paper horizontally around the room and paper your chosen design over it vertically. More on wallpapering in future posts. Depending on your plaster and paint, you may need to do a few undercoats - but it is important to discern between different paints. More on painting in future posts.