Ideal for new homebuyers and time-pressured owners who feel unable to do more than the essentials, this provides all the information necessary to undertake essential decorating and maintenance in an informed and sensible manner.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Meet the author
• Only got a minute?
• Only got five minutes?
• Only got ten minutes?
• Introduction
• Part one: The basics
• 1 Tools
• 2 Top ten DIY jobs for homeowners
• 3 Sequence of work
• 4 From foundations to the ground floor slab
• 5 Brickwork and blockwork
• 6 Roofs, roof coverings and loft conversions
• 7 Home electrics
• 8 Plumbing, central heating and drainage
• 9 Plastering, plasterboard and partition walls
• Part two: Projects
• Basics
• Mixing concrete
• Laying bricks and blocks
• Mixing sand and cement mortar
• Matching mortar colours
• Pointing and jointing brickwork
• Replacing a damaged brick or ceramic tile
• Outside
• Installing land drainage
• Building a soakaway
• Brick and block paving
• Laying edging stones
• Repointing a patio
• Concreting fence posts
• Basic timber decking
• Building a shed base
• Inside
• Fixing to masonry
• Screeding a floor
• Laying floor tiles
• Laying on undercoat plaster
• Applying a plaster topcoat (skimming)
• Building a partition wall
• Repairing a hole in plasterboard
• Sawing timber
• Pilot holes and countersinking
• Boxing in pipes
• Working with skirting, architraves, coving and dado rails
• Hanging a door
• Fitting a mortise latch
• Making shelves
• Building a cupboard
• Electrical
• Stripping cables and wires
• Wiring a plug
• Plumbing
• Repairing a burst pipe
• Repairing a dripping tap
• Replacing a tap
• Curing an air lock in the hot water system
• Unblocking toilets and drains
• Repairing a toilet that won't flush
• Decorating
• Painting or papering new plaster
• Blocking stains before decoration
• Ceramic tiling
• Wallpapering
• Stripping paint
• Painting timber