DIY Archives - Page 9 of 12

Things to Do to Get Your Home Prepared for the Cold Weather

September 16, 2017 by admin

School is back and session and that means one thing…the cooler weather is just around the corner. As beautiful as the fall can be and as magical as the winter weather might look, getting your home ready is imperative to surviving the harsh elements throughout the cold season. If you haven’t started preparing, now is the perfect time to get your home ready for the cool weather ahead. Here are some suggestions for getting ready:

Weatherize the House

During the fall and winter, the heating bills tend to surge due to the cost of gas and oil. You can reduce the amount of energy you’re using in your home during the cooler months by improving its efficiency. Over time, every home loses efficiency (some even start off inefficient). Cracks in the walls, around the windows and doors, and issues in the property’s foundation can quickly become ways for cool air to get in the home and your warm heat to get out.

Weatherizing your home essentially means finding and plugging those airways so that you can keep the cold air out and your heat in. Here are some suggestions on how to weatherize your home:

Place weather stripping around the doors and windows
Put plastic around windows that have cracks or let in a lot of cold air
Reinsulate the basement and attic
Fill in cracks with calk
Fix any foundation issues

Service Your Heating System

You’re going to rely on your heating system a lot during the fall and winter. A heating system that isn’t properly maintained will eventually lose efficiency. This isn’t good for a few reasons. First, it will cause the heating system to work harder to generate heat through the house. Second, it will cause your heating bills to increase. Lastly, it could lead to serious damage. Contact a company that specializes in heating repair and maintenance. They can check for any underlying issues and complete routine maintenance like cleaning the ventilation system and changing air filters.

Get the Gutters Cleaned

Having the gutters cleaned at least once or twice a year is necessary for the structure and integrity of your home. When gutters aren’t cleaned, they fill up with debris like twigs and leaves from nearby trees. This debris then clogs the gutter system preventing it from properly navigating rain waters away from your house. When the water isn’t properly routed away from the house, it can saturate the ground around it resulting in serious foundation issues.

If you’re not afraid to grab a ladder and clean them yourself, then by all means, get up there and do it. However, if you’re afraid of heights or have never cleaned the gutters before, it’s best to contact a roofing company for assistance. Not only will they clean your gutters, they can assess your roof to ensure that it will withstand the rain in the fall and the heavy snow and winds in the winter.

Tend to the Garden

Another home improvement task you’ll need to do before the winter comes is tending to the garden. Most of the garden chores you can do yourself unless you happen to have a black thumb. Towards the end of fall you’ll need to start cleaning up and covering up your garden for the winter. Start by getting rid of the dead stems and foliage from your flowers and/or veggies. This prevents them from harboring diseases and insect nests during the winter. Then, get rid of any weeds and debris before the ground gets too cold to deal with. Till the soil and then add compost to the soil. The fall is also a good time to dig and box any raised beds, create a cold frame, and complete any other general gardening repairs.

Home Décor

Some might consider making changes to the home’s décor to bring sort of a warm feeling to the cooler seasons ahead. Some home décor ideas can actually help to make the house feel warmer and save you money. For instance, putting up thicker window treatments can help to keep the cool air out. Switching to heavier bedding minimizes the need for the heat to be turned up too high when it’s cold at night. There are a ton of home décor ideas you could try for the fall and winter.

Well, you’ve got a laundry list of things to complete before the cold weather arrives. It’s a good idea to get started on these things sooner rather than later. As unpredictable as the weather can be at times, you don’t want the cold season to come upon you and you’re not prepared.

How to Transform Your Garden into Something Beautiful Yet Practical

July 31, 2017 by admin

Gardens often perform many functions, they are a nice, quiet place to relax and enjoy the pleasant weather, and they are a playground for your children. However, they also have to house the shed for tools and garden furniture as well as have a cooking area for the barbecue.

With all these functions, it can be difficult to make your garden look beautiful while still keeping the practical side. However, there are ways you can adapt your garden to meet everyone’s needs.

Treehouse

For children, there is nothing more exciting than having somewhere like a treehouse to play and get together with their friends. If you have a large enough tree, you can have a house designed around the branches that can be as elaborate as you wish.

Some trees, especially some in cities such as London are protected, so you will need to seek advice before you proceed. It is also a good idea to enlist the help of professional builders to help you with the work.

Patio Area

If you don’t have a patio, or it is too small, you should consider enlarging it to accommodate a larger seating area. You can then add a barbecue area with perhaps a separate fire pit for the cooler evenings.

With some houses, you can install large patio doors or maybe a concertina door to open up the whole space between the house and garden. Speak with a qualified structural engineer London area who can help you with any extra support that may be needed.

A Water Feature

For the bigger gardens, having a nice pond or water feature can add another dimension to the overall look. You can even add fish to the pond and a nice bridge crossing over it to make it a real feature.

Combined with a flowing fountain and some elegant water plants around the edge, it will make the garden look serene and calm.

Raised Beds

If you have small children, then you might want to raise your flower beds to stop plants becoming damaged. It can be easy to add some wooden or brick walls which can also add a nice border to the garden.

You can also add some large planters or pots to keep small trees or larger plants along the edges. You don’t have to have square borders or planters; you can get creative and have them meander along the garden to break up the grassed area.

Lighting

Lighting serves two purposes, it allows you to see the garden even in the evening, and it also allows you to stay outside longer in the warm evenings. You don’t have to go for large standing lamps or halogen lamps that are very bright. You can use smaller lights along a wall or path to give a gentle illumination.

With just a few ideas, you can change the whole look and function of your garden and make it a great place to relax and play.

Bathroom Remodeling Tips

June 23, 2017 by admin

The bathroom is somewhere that we spend a great deal of our time and although you may not realize it, the quality of your bathroom can have a profound effect on your day. We don’t just use our bathrooms for cleansing ourselves and when nature calls, it is also the sanctuary which we can go to, lock the door and be alone with our thoughts for a while. For these reasons it is important that when it comes to remodeling your bathroom, you do so with a great deal of thought and careful planning. If you are preparing to remodel your bathroom, here are some tips which may be able to help you out.

Subtle Themes

The best bathrooms are those which use subtle designs, colors and patterns to make the place stand out. Filling your bathroom with a variety of colors will only serve to make the bathroom feel chaotic, remember that this is a room which should be relaxing. In order to keep it simple and effective, why not consider a plain white, slate or black bathroom, and then add hints of color and design throughout.

Go Big on The Bathtub

A bathtub can really add to the overall impact of your bathroom and you should view it as a center point as well as something that is functional. For this reason it is important that you aren’t afraid to spend the necessary money on a tub that will not only look amazing in your bathroom but also can provide you with ultimate relaxation and comfort after a long day. There is a wide range of baths to choose from such as clawfoot bathtubs and freestanding bathtubs, depending on what you have space for and which you think suits you best.

Functionality

Whilst opting for a pretty bathroom is not such a bad thing, you must also make sure that the bathroom which you are designing is practical too. If you have kids then you are going to need a bathroom which is flexible and has plenty of storage space. If it is just yourself or you and a partner then perhaps you may want to focus on a bathroom which can give you maximum comfort and relaxation space.

Make sure that you put the time in to designing your bathroom, it is an important room in the house and one which you probably spend more time in than you would’ve thought.

The Drywall Panel Lift – An Essential Tool in Drywalling

June 9, 2017 by admin

Source

Drywall panel lifts are hugely important tools in the drywall industry, as well as for those who want to do a DIY job. Professionals like Lloyd Claycomb II have found that these lifts have done away with the need for ‘dead man’ constructions and have freed up a lot of manpower as well. As the name suggests, these are lifts that have been designed to push heavy drywall panels up, and keep them there. They can usually reach heights of between four and 11 foot, making them perfect for ceiling jobs as well. If you are a DIY drywall installer, you will find that these lifts are perfect to help you save time, and to spare your body as well, as you no longer have to tax your neck, shoulder, back, and arm muscles. These lifts truly are fantastic pieces of equipment that greatly shorten the amount of time you need to spend on completing a drywall project.

Professional drywall installers also almost always use these types of lifts on the job. This is because it protects them from workplace injuries and ensures they can be safer, more comfortable, and overall more productive. When professionals install drywall on a ceiling, they will inevitably use these lifts because they would otherwise have to hold heavy drywall panels over their head. By using a lift, the sheet stays in place and doesn’t move, meaning it can easily be screwed or nailed into place.

If you have a DIY drywall project to complete, it is unlikely that you will want to purchase a drywall panel lift. They are quite expensive pieces of machinery, meaning that it is a far better idea to rent one instead. You can usually rent them for around $50 per day, which is quite affordable. Most importantly, it will pay for itself because you will complete the work much sooner than you would without a lift. Most of all, it will make your job a whole lot easier to complete, particularly if you also use drywall stilts at the same time.

In terms of how a drywall lift works, you would be surprised at how easy it actually is. This is why it is so common to be able to rent one, since it does not require any specialized training or licensing to be used. Simply put, you assemble the lift, which doesn’t require any tools, but a drywall panel in its cradle, and lift it to the ceiling. Once the sheet has reached the spot you want it to be in, you can screw or nail it into position. If you want your ceiling to have a really professional finish to it, then make sure you start drywalling in one of the corners, working your way along from there. Thanks to a drywall lift, completing this job quickly and to perfection is easier than ever. When you consider drywall installation would often take weeks and many injuries to complete, it is no surprise that the drywall lift is so popular nowadays.

Adding curb appeal to your property – how to do it affordably and easily

May 31, 2017 by admin

Selling your home can be a stressful process. You want to try and get as much interest in the property as possible, in order to give yourself more chance of selling quickly, and of securing the best possible selling price. There are several things you need to take into account, when you selling your home. These considerations include choosing a real estate agent you can trust, or knowing the best way to deal with your own house sale.

One thing that you may not necessarily consider as a priority, can actually be very important; that is curb appeal. If your property looks good from the outside, you will be surprised how much interest you can get from people who are just passing by. There are ways that you can improve the curb appeal of your home, without having to spend a fortune to do so.

Consider cladding as an option

Cladding the exterior of your home is obviously going to cost you money. But you need to weigh this up against the amount of value that you could be adding. Cladding does not just improve the appearance of your home, it also offers protection to the exterior surface, as well as helping with home insulation.

If you speak to an expert such as Peter Bracey they can help you decide which type of cladding you should use. They can also advise you on how much of an investment you need to make.

Tidying and cleaning your outside space

If the front of your home looks untidy, dirty or overgrown, many people are not going to bother looking behind the issues. You could be putting off a lot of potential buyers. If you lead a busy life, and there is a house sale that is also complicating matters, it’s understandable that tasks may get neglected.

It’s important that you try and make time to tidy your outside space. You should cut back bushes and trees and ensure that dead plants are removed. If you have the time, it’s also worth adding a few fresh plants to give a splash of colour. You should also jet wash the driveway and get rid of any weeds that are present.

Painting and repairing

You may not think that a broken fence will be of much concern to people buying a property. The thing is that it’s not just about a broken fence. This type of issue can make it seem as though you are not bothered about the upkeep of your home; this is not something that people who are thinking of buying the property want to see.

You need to make sure that you fix broken fences, or other issues. It’s also worth painting the outside of the property, if the paint is peeling or faded. Do not forget to opt for a traditional or neutral colour scheme, as this is likely to appeal to more people.

All of these actions can help add curb appeal to your home. This can make selling the property easier and can help you to secure a better selling price.