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Hello!
I'm Chris and I'm hopeless at DIY. About five years ago, when I wanted to know how to fix a really troublesome faucet (that's a "tap" to you Brits), I searched on the Web, located some good information, and bookmarked the sites I found. I did the same thing when I made a real mess of redoing the silicone sealant in my bathroom. After a while, I found I'd built up quite a collection of useful DIY links and I realized it was probably useful to other people too. That's how this very simple (and hopefully very effective) website was born. Over the last few years, I have very gradually extended the page so it now contains a hand-compiled list of over 550 of the best DIY pages I know about covering everything from replacing a broken window to fixing a dripping faucet. I put it together for my own benefit, but I hope it really is a valuable guide for you too. I was aiming to make the web-equivalent of one of those big old DIY manuals you used to find in bookstores about 20 years ago.
This site was made by a human, i.e. me!
Please note that this is not a mechanically generated site full of garbage links! It has been meticulously compiled
by hand and is maintained by hand whenever I have time or something new to add. I've done my absolute best to make
this website helpful to ordinary people who want quick advice for tackling household DIY problems.
- Everything is on one page where it's really easy to find. No glitz or glamour, no slow-loading photos—just one simple text page. Search engines hate pages like this that are packed full of links, but I beg to differ: I think people appreciate having everything collected onto one easy page where you can quickly find things. Links should open in new tabs or windows so you can keep this page open in the background and explore the links one at a time.
- I've marked with a star (
) the pages I think are most useful.
- I've included quite a few different guides to most topics so you can compare the advice and choose the one you like best. Different people value different approaches so I think that's the best way. I try to avoid listing "content-farm" articles (rip-off articles essentially copied from other people's sites and rewritten by badly paid workers) or other short, poorly written pages, but a few earn their place and one or two may have sneaked through while I wasn't paying attention. If you spot any bad ones, let me know. Similarly, if you spot any pages here that have ripped-off your content and you'd like them delinked, let me know that too and I will investigate.
- There are absolutely no "paid" or "affiliate" links anywhere in this list. I do not buy or sell links under any circumstances. Sites earn their place on this page by being informative and everything on this page is here because I think it's useful. Period.
- Please tell me about other useful pages you've found. I'll review them very carefully and, if I agree they're useful and informative, I'll happily list them here. Please note that I will not make links to sites that are simply selling things and offering no added information of any kind. Please also note that I do not sell advertising space and I never buy or sell links. Read my lips: I am not interested in selling links! Similarly, if you think any of the links here are useless, please tell me that too. I'm very sorry if you find broken links or ones that go to the wrong place: quite often pages deteriorate or move about over time and it's very hard to keep track. You can contact me by sending an email to: hithere at completediyguide dot com
Please be sure to read the site disclaimer and privacy policy.
Update status
Last updated: 19 September 2011 (links completely checked and revised).
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Contents
- Introduction
- Safety advice:before you start
- Tools
- Favorite DIY sites
- Planning projects and getting ideas
- Painting
- Wallpapering
- Tiles and tiling
- Woodworking
- Electrical
- Walls and ceilings
- Doors, windows, and security
- Insulation and energy efficiency
- Floors, rugs, carpets, and stairs
- Plumbing, heating, and drains
- Curtains, drapes, blinds, and upholstery
- Roofing and gutters
- Outside: paths, walls, patios, gardens, and garages
Introduction: Why do it yourself?
Are you happy with your home? Are there things you'd like to improve? Maybe you're put off by the daunting cost of home improvements, which can run into many thousands of pounds. Fear not, do-it-yourself could be the answer. Why have expensive tradesmen tramping through your home causing havoc when you can cause the havoc yourself? Seriously, if you're patient, organized, and methodical there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't do an awful lot of home improvement yourself—and save a huge amount of money. Of course, there are some specialized jobs where you'd be an absolute fool not to use a professional. Plumbing and electrical work often fall into this category. But if all you want to do is paint the walls, hang new wallpaper, fix up some shelves, or build a garden path, why not try to do it yourself first?
Ten tips for newbies
Go straight to the links section if you want to but, if you're a complete beginner, you may prefer to check out our top-ten DIY tips first:
- Start simple: If you've never tackled a DIY project before, start with something easy to build your confidence. Try putting up some shelves, building a small outdoor path, or painting one small room. Once you get the easy job right, gradually build up to more difficult jobs. Start with something hard and bodge it up and you'll not only have a mess to put right, you'll also lose your confidence to do anything more.
- "Give me the tools and I'll do the job": Make sure you use the right tool for the job. Nothing's more likely to bodge a job than using the wrong tool. If you can't afford tools, how about hiring them or borrowing from a friend or neighbor? Have you looked on eBay for tools someone else no longer wants?
- Be safe: You can do a lot of damage with DIY, so be sure to review all the safety instructions and warnings on products and tools you use before you start.
- How-to projects save you time: Once you're a confident DIYer, you'll be able to come up with your own ideas very easily. In the meantime, there are literally hundreds of how-to pages on the Web that give you precise, step-by-step instructions. Start with these idiot-proof guides before setting out on your own.
- Take it slowly: There's always a temptation to rush to complete a job in a day or a weekend, especially if you're depending on something like the light or the weather. But don't rush: take your time. It takes twice as long to sort out a hurried, bodged job that's gone wrong as it does to do something slowly and properly in the first place.
- Know your limits: Don't take on something you can't manage, especially if it causes a major change to the appearance of your home. Remember that your home is the most expensive investment you will ever make. Nothing torpedoes the value of a house more quickly than bad DIY.
- Shop around: You know your saving pots of money with DIY so the temptation is just to buy the first raw materials you see. Don't! Check prices of tools, timber, and other raw materials in two or three places. It doesn't take more than a few minutes. Don't forget to look on eBay, in junk shops, and so on.
- Be green: Why not try to reuse and recycle materials when you can? Reclaimed timber is very fashionable for flooring, but even the waste products of DIY have their uses: don't forget to recycle unwanted wallpaper offcuts... and throw your sawdust in the compost bin!
- Don't be afraid to ask for help: Taking risks is a major cause of accidents. Why risk lifting something if you doubt you can do it? How long does it take to ask a friend to help you? Similarly, if you're not sure what you're doing is right, why not ask a friend for a second opinion.
- Don't be afraid to bail out: If it's all starting to go pear-shaped, stop, cut your losses, and call in a professional. If you're in a hole, know when to stop digging.
Links for more information
Safety advice: before you start
Tools
General links
- Choosing tools:
A great set of articles about choosing different tools, including saws,
drills, hammers, ladders, sandpaper, spanners... and more.
- OnlineToolReviews.com:
Some really excellent reviews here. Informative, thoughtful, and detailed.
- Ultimate Handyman: Power tool buying guide: Includes guides to drills, cordless drills, power saws, grinders, sanders, rotozips, routers.
- DIYnot.com: Buying and hiring: Looks at the pros and cons of buying and hiring and things to watch out for, including basic safety points.
- DIY tool guide: What do you need for an emergency toolbox? More a guide for ordinary non-DIYers than serious DIY folk.
Tool buying guides from Homebase UK
The UK Homebase store has some clear and simple DIY buying guides, including quite a few covering tools:
Favorite DIY sites
These are some of the web's most comprehensive DIY sites, ranked in alphabetical order. Most are written by one-man DIY professionals with years of experience, who really know their stuff, and are happy to share their knowledge. These sites should be firmly at the top of your bookmarks—the backbone of your online DIY reading! I would always point you to sites like this rather than my own humble little effort, but what I do offer you here that's different is a selection of different approaches to different problems.
Planning projects and getting ideas
There's a much-extended list of design links on our
Complete Guide to Home Design page.
Painting
Preparing to paint
Paint calculators
Painting factsheets from Julian Cassell
Wallpapering
General wallpapering
Stripping wallpaper
Choosing new wallpaper
- Types of wallpapers: Another view from Do It Yourself.com. Considers the difference between ordinary paper, vinyl, coated fabric, and so on.
- Types of wallpapers: Basic advice from DIYdata.com.
- Wallpaper basics: An introduction from About.com.
- Zoffany: Sumptuous, deluxe wallpapers and wall coverings. Yum!
Tiles and tiling
Woodworking
There's a much bigger and better list of woodworking links on our
Complete Guide to Woodworking page.
Guides to different types of wood
Miscellaneous woodworking sites
- DIY
Woodworking: Offers instructions and videos on basic wood working
techniques, child wood working projects, tutorials, and more.
- WoodNet.net: The
woodworker's online resource: Woodworking Tips, Techniques, Tool
Reviews, Plans and Supplies for Woodworkers..
- Newwoodworker.com:
Articles, tips, plans, tool reviews, and more.
- About.com
Woodworking: Lots of woodworking projects and links.
- Open
Directory Project: Woodworking: Human-compiled catalog of links.
- DIY fixit: There are lots of woodworking and carpentry how-tos in the "Building" section of this very useful site.
- Free woodworking plans: Links to a variety of project websites. Quite a few broken links on here (though who I am to talk about broken links...)
Using varnish and stains
Putting up shelves and shelving
Bookcases and cabinets
More woodworking projects and guides
More tool tips from diyfixit.co.uk
These are good simple guides to a few of your basic woodworking tools:
Making stands for loudspeakers
Electrical
There's a much-extended list of electrical links on our
Complete Guide to Home Electrics page.
Electrical work can be highly dangerous!
We strongly recommend you get all your home electrical work done by a qualified electrician.
You can find qualified electrians in the UK through NICEIC.
In some countries, states, or other jurisdictions, it is illegal for unqualified people to carry out some or all aspects of home electrical work. For example, in the UK, from 1st January 2005, all new electrical work in a dwelling (a house, flat or small commercial premise linked to domestic accommodation) must be designed and installed to account for the new Part P of the Building Regulations.
(Broadly speaking, that means only certified persons can carry out electrical work or the work must be certified when it's finished.) Lots of websites tell you more about this, including
this page from DIY Doctor.
The UK Planning Portal also gives the full text of Part P of the Building Reglations.
General electrical
Homebase electrical project guides
The UK Homebase store has some very clear, illustrated electrical guides. Please note that these apply to the UK electrical system!
DIY Doctor projects
DIY Doctor offers an alternative set of simple, clear, illustrated, electrical guides:
Energy-efficient lighting
- Energy Star lighting products: The US government guide includes decorative light strings, CFL light bulbs, light fixtures, and LEDs.
- Energy Savers: Lighting: Lots more good advice from the US government, including types of energy efficient lighting, lighting controls that turn your lights on and off automatically, lamp and ballast replacements, lighting maintenance, and suggestions for when it makes sense to turn off your lights.
- Energy Efficient Lighting: A really good introduction to the different types available and a comparison of LED and CFL technology.
- Lighting: An Energy Efficient Future: James Cavallo provides an excellent introduction to energy-efficient lamps for Home Energy magazine.
- Fluorescent lamps: Our own simple introduction to how energy-saving CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) work.
- Hybrid solar lighting (HSL): Cut your energy bills by combining daylight and artificial lighting in an automatically controlled system.
Other home electrical
- Electrical tips: A variety of useful tips from Allabouthome.com, including
cords and plugs, doorbells, lamps and light fixtures, receptacles, saving electricity,
wall switches, your electrical system, fuses, electrical safety precautions,
diagnosing electrical problems, and troubleshooting electrical problems.
- How to wire a plug: A simple three-minute video guide from HowTo.TV.
- Changing
a fuse: But fix whatever the problem is first.
- Changing
a fuse on the fusebox: How to change a fuse on the consumer unit,
including wire fuses and cartridge fuses, ensuring that the correct
size fuse wire is used to replace it.
Walls and ceilings
General
Fixing and fastening things to walls
Plasterboard and partitions
Plaster
Ceilings
- Ceilings: Lots
of great tips and projects from Tim at AskTheBuilder.com.
- Ceilings information: A variety of tips from Do It Yourself.com, including what to do about cracks and leaks, how to decorate, how to install suspended ceilings, and much more.
Coving
Skirting
Fixing mirrors to the wall
Soundproofing
Doors, windows, and security
Doors—general
Windows: general
- DIY
Network: Windows: Quite a lot of articles and project information about windows.
- Doors and windows: Step-by-step guide from DIY guide Ron Hazleton.
- Ask the Builder: Windows: There are lots of window-related articles from Tim Carter's wonderful site, covering such topics as how to repair sash windows, how to install window boxes, and even how to add a stained glass effect to ordinary windows.
- Windows and doors: A small collection of how-to guides from Lowes, including how to install interior and exterior doors, patio doors, storm doors, and replacement windows.
Double glazing
Repairing windows
- Repairing
a broken window: How to repair a broken window, including, what you
will need, temporary repairs, how to remove the glass...
- Repairing
Putty Window Glass: How to replace broken glass in your wood sash
or metal sash putty windows.
- Repairing
wood windows: "Our old windows had broken glass and crumbling
putty. Follow along as we repair them."
- Learn2 Repair a
Broken Window: From tutorials.com.
- Fixing Broken Windows: Wikipedia: "Repair the broken windows within a
short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows..." The scientific theory of broken windows isn't much practical help, but reading about it is an interesting way to waste time while you put off the repair!
- How
to Repair a Window Pane: Simple home project from Doityourself.com.
- Questions about repairing sash windows: Q&A from Ask the Builder.
- How to reduce window condensation: A useful page from Gilkey that explains what causes condensation, how much humidity a room can hold, and how you can tackle the problem.
Fitting locks
Other good sites about home security
Insulation and energy efficiency
General energy efficiency
- Energy Saving Trust: Lots of money-saving advice from this UK non-profit group, including a good set of pages on home insulation & glazing.
- Draught
Proofing: Lots of good tips here from Consumer Utility Services.
- Insulation:
Objective advice from Oxford City Council. Explains the typical costs and savings of different kinds of insulation.
- Energy efficiency: More objective advice on insulation and energy saving, this time from White Horse District Council.
Roof and loft insulation
Insulating doors and windows (general)
- Draught
proofing windows and doors: How to draught proof windows and doors,
various types of draught excluder available..
- Glazing: The Energy Saving Trust explains energy efficient windows, including double and triple glazing, low-emissivity (low-E) glass, heat-reflective windows, and more.
- Glazing technical manual: A detailed technical guide to environmentally sound home glazing, how it works, passive solar, heat flow, different types of glazing, window rating schemes, and more.
- Vinyl Windows: Purchasing Quality: Tim Carter explains how to get the best vinyl (PVC) windows for your money on his dependably excellent Askthebuilder.com site.
General draftproofing (draughtproofing) and air leaks
Draught-proofing sash windows
DIY window insulation with plastic sheets
- The Plastic People: UK-based firm Barkston will cut and finish different kinds of plastic to precise dimensions, allowing you to make your own instant double glazing at low cost.
- DIY Plas: An alternative UK supplier of secondary plastic glazing kits.
- Blindseal: A simple system for sealing around the edges of a roller blind to improve insulation.
Caulking windows
Cavity wall insulation
Energy-efficient heating and boilers
Measuring home energy use
- Energy monitors: These simple devices measure how much electricity you're using so you can eliminate your more wasteful appliances.
- Google Power Meter: Google isn't just a search engine! It can help you measure, monitor, and cut your energy use.
- Thermal imaging reveals heat leaks: This BBC News story reveals how a thermogram can reveal heat wastage and help you target your energy-efficiency measures to where they really count.
- Middle School Home Energy Audit: How to figure out your electricity consumption the old-fashioned way.
- What's your score?: The first step to cutting energy use is to measure what you use at the moment. This page from Energy Star tells you how to compare your usage to other people's across the United States.
- iMeasure: Test your energy score and try to beat your friends. A fun energy-monitoring project from Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute.
- Saving electricity with a home energy monitor: A guide from the UK government site.
- Energy monitoring: Photos of energy monitors on Flickr. A bit of light relief from actually using them: take a photo and show it off!
- Earth Pill: A database of energy consumption measurements made by people with home energy monitors.
Floors, rugs, carpets, and stairs
General flooring tips, advice, and ideas
Choosing your new floor
- Floors: A basic introduction to the different types of floor and choosing the best one for you from HGTV.
- Choosing my floor: This simple page from Quickstyle compares the benefits and drawbacks of different floors for different purposes on criteria like ease of installation, wear resistance, moisture resistance, and so on.
- Choosing floor coverings: An alternative review of options from HomestyleExpert.
Environmentally friendly recycled floors
General information
Fitting your own carpet
Laying stair carpets
Repairing and cleaning your carpet
Repairing your carpet
Cleaning your carpet
Getting stains out of your carpet
Cork, vinyl, and ceramic tile floors
General introductions
Tiles
Cleaning tiles
Slate, stone, ceramic, and porcelain floors
Stone
Slate
- Install a slate floor: A clear how-to guide from doityourself.com.
- Slate flooring FAQ: Lots of your questions answered at BuildDirect, from the most basic (What is slate?) to more complex issues like what type of mortar and grout to use.
Terrazzo floors
Wooden and laminate floors
Laminate floors
Parquet floors
Other wooden floors
Building staircases
Careers
Has your career hit the floor? Maybe it should! If you're interested in a career in carpet fitting or floor laying, take a look at these pages...
Carpet fitters
Plumbing, heating, and drains
Please note: In some countries, states, or regions, certain aspects of DIY
work (such as plumbing work) may be prohibited by law.
It is your responsibility to check that what you want to do is lawful
in your area.
There's a much-extended list of plumbing links on our
Complete Guide to Plumbing page.
General plumbing problems
Project worksheets from Homebase UK
The UK Homebase store has a very good selection of how-to guides.
Plumbing emergencies
Fixing dripping faucets/taps
Plumbing repairs
Drains and drainage
Curtains, drapes, blinds, and upholstery
There's a much-extended list of home design links on our
Complete Guide to Home Design page.
Making curtains
Making blinds
Making a shower curtain
Sun shades, conservatory blinds, and heat-reflecting curtains
- Wooden Shutters from the California Shutters and Blinds Company - UK DIY shutters specialists with online ordering of wooden plantation shutters.
- The
power of the sun: Different approaches to keeping out the heat.
- A Guide to
Conservatory Blinds: Considers the different types of blinds, pros and cons of each, and has a very handy table allowing you to estimate the cost of blinds based on size, fabric, and so on.
- Heat blocking curtains: A neat little project to reduce summer air conditioning courtesy of the Instructables website.
- DIY Drapes
or Shutters: "As an alternative to professionally installed
Sunblinds you can consider installing your own drapes using a variety
of fabrics."
Cleaning and repairing upholstery
Roofing and gutters
General DIY roofing guides
Roof repairs
Fixing roof tiles
Repairing and cleaning gutters
Outside: paths, walls, patios, gardens, and garages
General
Slabs and foundations
- How
to Lay Flags and Slabs: Tips from the Paving Experts!
- Home Handyman's Step-by-Step Guide To Laying Concrete: A simple, easy-to-follow guide from ReadyMix(TM). Explains all about stakes, forms, using a concrete truck, placing, screeding, floating, and finishing your concrete.
- Concrete projects:
Lots of step-by-step project guides from Quikrete.
- How To Build a
Foundation for Gazebos and Sheds by Cedarshed: A step-by-step guide
- Repairing
a Cracked Concrete Slab: Advice from Ask the Builder.
- Clearance Paving: How-to Guides: Some useful guides here, including how to choose the right paving, how to choose a contractor, installing
flag paving, how to maintain your paving, and quite a lot more.
Patios and decking
Measuring and mixing concrete
Building garden steps
Making a garden pond
Garages and garage doors
Making a fence
Making a gate
Brick walls and outdoor bricklaying
Making a garden path
Making a garden shed
Making garden furniture
Building a pergola
Making bird boxes and bird tables
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