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DIY HINTS, TIPS & IDEAS


Here you will find information, hints, tips and advice on how to go about your DIY projects.
We will be adding to this section all the time. 
If there is anything you would like us to cover, just drop us a line at info@buildinganddiy.com

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tools1) The Right Tools for The Job!

Using the right tools for your DIY project can make the whole thing SO much easier! – People tend to think that “cheap will do”, but that is not necessarily the case. – Sometimes “cheap” means “rubbish” and you can end up spending a lot more time and effort to do the same job that would be a simple task with “good quality gear”
Here are a few tips to help you make sure you get the right tools for the job:
Starting with the basics:


How to choose a Screwdriver:

As you probably know, these come mainly in “flathead” or “Crosshead” (also sometimes called “Phillips” or “Posidrive”) configuration.
You don’t actually find a lot of “slotted” screws (which take the flat head screwdriver) these days. Manufacturers tend to go for some form of “Crosshead” (or sometimes “Allen Key” fitting) when they produce new goods. – The reason for this is that “Flathead” screwdrivers are not as efficient at doing their job as “Crosshead” screwdrivers. – With a flathead screw, you will find that the screwdriver “slips out” of the groove a lot easier and a lot more often. – This is because there is not as “neat” a fit when the head of the screwdriver goes into the slot. – If there is room for the screwdriver to “move around” in the slot of the screw, it is more likely to slip out.
The “Crosshead” screw (or allen key) gives a far better “grip” onto the head of the screwdriver than the “Flathead” does.
Now, when you go and buy a screwdriver, be it a “flathead or a crosshead: Beware of the cheap stuff!
Not all cheap tools are rubbish, some are ok, but many of them will not last 5 minutes!
If you buy a cheap screwdriver set, there is a good chance that the metal they are produced form will be soft and of poor quality. – As you start to use them, as soon as you put any pressure on to tighten up a screw, the corners could break and you’ll end up throwing them away.
One thing to look out for when you buy is to check that they have at least a “hardened” point. This will help them to last a bit longer.
The next thing to watch is the handle: A cheap plastic handle will sometimes simply crack when it is either knocked or too much pressure is put on it. – It will often also be badly designed and be uncomfortable to hold, giving you sore hands after putting just a few screws in. – better designed handles will often have a soft feel, have no rough edges and “fit” into the palm of your hand comfortably.
 A good set of screwdrivers can last for years. – They may cost 5 times as much as a cheap set, but if you end up getting a cheap set every time you do a job, you could end up buying 30 or more sets over your lifetime. – Why not think about investing once and making them last?
 


How to choose a Hammer:

Depending on how much DIY you do, you may end up with a selection of hammers. – There are various types of hammers, designed for different jobs and at vastly different price levels.
Starting at the bottom end you’ll usually find the plastic or wooden handled “Claw” hammer in most of the “Discount” shops for a couple of quid upwards. – These can actually sometimes be perfectly serviceable tools as long as you don’t ask too much of them.hammer
Their weakness tends to be in the handle – Especially the cheap imported ones from Far East with wooden or hollow metal handles. – After a few knocks they will simply split or "crease" at some point along the handle and the head will often go flying (usually towards your shin or some other part of your body!). Some of the cheap hammers have a fibreglass handle which can be a bit longer lasting, but again will often split and break with any sort of regular use.
The more expensive you go with a hammer, the better the materials. – Without paying too much you can get up to the ranges which are made in one piece, of hardened metal, with a comfortable grip.
You will also find that the weight of the hammer makes a difference to their performance. – The heavier the hammer, the easier less hits they take to knock a nail “home”.
The shape and size of the head also affects their “knocking in ability”.
If you only need one hammer, I’d probably recommend going for one costing about £15 - £20, but compare a few before your buy one: – Feel the weight is it heavy, but not TOO heavy? – How comfortable is the grip? – Is it one piece “forged”? - Is the head a good size and pretty flat?
A standard claw hammer will not be suitable for all jobs: For small nails and pins you would be advised to get a small headed hammer which will allow you more accuracy. – If you are trying to cut bricks with the aid of a hammer and brick chisel, you’ll probably find that a standard claw hammer will struggle to do the job, and you’ll be better off with something like a “lump hammer”.

Unless you just want a general purpose hammer, always ask the advice of someone in the shop. – Tell them what you are using it for and see what they suggest. – Get the right one, and you’ll find the jobs you do tend to be easier and more successful.
 


How to choose a Spirit Level:

You may think that there is no reason to spend good money on a spirit level when they are just a “bit of metal” with a bubble in the middle.
In fact a good quality spirit level can save you a lot of money and time.
You’ll see very short levels and very long ones, and you’ll see ones with fixed bubbles and others with adjustable bubbles. – You’ll see them for £1.50 and £30+
Just remember when buying one that if the level is not giving you an accurate “enough” reading, then whatever you are using it, the thing you are using it will not be either “vertical”, or “level” (depending on what you are using it for).
If you are installing a shelf, it won’t be level. - If you are building a wall, it won’t be plumb. – That could result in you having to take the work down and start again!
Better quality levels tend to be more robust and will cope with “knocks” and “misuse” better.

There are 2 things to watch out for with a spirit level:

  1) The bubble not reading “true”. – If the housing which holds the bubble slips within its housing, for whatever reason (bad manufacture / knock etc), it makes the tool basically useless. – What good is a spirit level which does not tell you when something is level?
2) If the level is too short for the job, you’ll get less accurate work (it can only tell you if each bit of the work it touches is level, and this can sometimes allow the “overall” job to be significantly out of level without you knowing)
So, and adjustable bubble is a useful thing to have, and get a level which is going to be the right length to suit your job:
For a shelf, a level about 2’ long will give you a pretty accurate reading over a long enough length of shelf to tell you whether the “whole” shelf is level “enough” or not.
For brickwork which could be a few metres high, a longer level, 4’+ long would be recommended so you get a good reading of a long section of the work each time you use it.
For a mirror or something short, then a 9” level may me perfectly adequate.
Test the level:

Here are 2 ways to test the accuracy of your level:

1) Check it both ways: - Put the level onto a level surface and see where the bubble is (it should be in the middle), then turn the level around and see if the bubble stays in the same place. – If it doesn’t, then it is not giving you accurate results.
2) Put one level on top of another and see if the bubbles read exactly the same (they should) – then, turn one around and see if they still read the same.

Adjusting your level:

If you can adjust your level, one way to do it is to lay t on a surface, then turn it round. – If the bubble gives different readings each time, adjust the bubble slightly and repeat the exercise. – If it gets better, keep repeating the action until there is no difference between the readings.
 


joiner cutting timberHow to choose a Saw:

There are differing views on the best types of saws to buy, depending on who you are speaking to in the trade.
Some joiners will buy a high quality saw and keep it for months, if not years. – They will also buy a “sharpening” tool and keep the teeth permanently sharp themselves.
Others will buy “disposable” saws which they will sometime discard almost daily!
There is no particular right and wrong, but there are still “good” saws, and saws which are not worth buying:
As with screwdrivers, the quality of the metal will have a big say into how long the saw lasts. – A cheap soft metal saw could be starting to go blunt after 5 or 6 uses. – A hardened metal saw could last for dozens (or more) uses before starting to struggle. – Don’t worry, - you will soon be able to tell when the saw is getting blunt!
The number of “teeth per inch” are what denotes how “fine” the cut is going to be. – Around 7 teeth per inch gives you a “universal” general purpose saw, often used to cut “rough sawn” timber to length. – As you go up to about 11 teeth per inch, you are getting to what is called a “fine cut” saw, used mainly for finishing work, like architraves, skirtings , doors etc.
There are even finer saws – Mitre saws for cutting very fine work will usually have 13 or more teeth per inch.
If you try to use a “general purpose” saw for “fine work”, you will find that the edges tend to be rough and you will have to do a lot of sanding work to get a nice finish.

Cost wise:

A decent universal “disposable saw” will usually cost you between £6 and £10. – These will normally see you through one reasonable sized DIY job.
A higher quality saw which you want to keep sharp yourself and use for many years will cost upwards of £25
If you find a saw in a shop for £2, you will usually find that after a few cuts, the blade is starting to lose its cutting ability. – You’ll often end up “binning it” and buying another.
 


power drillHow to choose a Power Drill:

If you go into any DIY store, you will be confronted by a huge selection of all types of drills, both “Mains”, and “Battery” powered. – But which should you choose?
It’s not actually difficult:
·         Mains power drills have the most power.
·         Batteries go from about 7.5volt to around 24volt. – Basically the higher the voltage, the more power they have.
·         Some drills have a “hammer” feature, some don’t. – The hammer feature is useful for any time you are drilling into masonry. – Which, if you think about it, there is a good chance of you doing at some stage!
·         Some come in “sets”, complete with drill bits, screws, plugs etc. –These are ideal for people who just need to have something “tucked away” in a cupboard for when they want to hang a picture frame or do some minor DIY project
·         Some are big, chunky and heavy (usually the high voltage battery powered ones), these are generally used more by the keen amateur or professional who will be needing to use it for some part of most days. – They make lighter work of the heavy duty jobs and the batteries last longer. – They also often come with a spare battery which can be charging whilst the other one is being used (important if you want to keep progress going all the time).
·         Some are lightweight – again, these are generally designed for the small amateur projects.
·         Cheaper drill’s batteries will often be of lower quality than their more expensive counterparts. – They may hold less charge, and wear out quicker. – If you choose one of these, you may struggle to get a replacement battery when you need one, and end up throwing the whole thing away.
 
You will see in some shops, very professional looking cordless drills in huge big boxes for “Special offer price -£19.99”. – There may be nothing wrong with them. – They may be a genuine “special offers”, but check to see if they have the “hammer” feature and what “voltage” they are before you buy.
As a general rule of thumb, if you are an “occasional DIY’er”, I would recommend spending about £30 - £50 on a 12v cordless drill or about £25 - £40 on a mains drill.
If you are a serious DIY’er then about £60 - £100 would get you a good 18v Cordless and £50 - £75 a good mains powered drill
If you want something professional that’s going to make easy work of most jobs, then you could pay around £150 - £200+ for a high quality 24v cordless drill and £100 - £150 for a mains powered drill.
If you see a cordless drill on offer for £9.99, unless you KNOW it’s a genuine special offer, - leave it there!!!
 


How to choose Drill Bits:

If you are tempted to buy those “500 drill bits for £5” type offers, I would think again!
The main drill bits most people will use will be a couple of different sizes of “Crosshead” and a couple of “Flathead” sizes. – Possibly a few of the “Allen key” bits.
The rest of the “dozens” or sometimes “hundreds” of assortment of bits will often never get used and end up cluttering up boxes in your garage!
The problem is that if you buy the cheap sets of bits, the chances are that the ones you do use will be of poor quality, and will break fairly quickly! – And you’ll then be left with loads of useless bits! - While you then also have to go back to the shop to get some more of the ones that you DO use!!
I would suggest that, instead of buying lots of cheap bits, you think about buying small sets of GOOD QUALITY bits that you know you will use. – These bits will tend to last many times longer than the cheap ones.
This could save you a lot of money in the long run (not only in bits, but also in time and money spent going to the DIY shop for new bits!
£10 - £15 might sound a lot for half a dozen bits. BUT, if they last you a couple of years and they stop you from paying “£5 for 100 bits”, of which the 6 you actually use break after 2 weeks, and you end up spending another £5, - then £15 for 6 starts to make a bit of sense!!
 


2) PAINTING


girl painting and decoratingTools for the job:

When that dreaded time comes around for you to think about re painting a room, what do you do? – Do you head off and buy the cheapest tools for the job? – The “100 – All Sizes Paint Brush for a fiver!!” sets, the £2.99 rollers and tray sets and the 10 litres of magnolia for £7.50? – So you keep the cost down and you can “bin” the brushes and rollers when you have finished?
Well maybe it’s time to re think that idea!

1) Use Good Quality Paint brushes:

Cheap paint brushes are generally very thin, bristles regularly fall out and sometimes the finish they give is poor. A thin brush only holds a little bit of paint, so it could take you 2 or 3 times as long to do the job and you could be forever picking bristles off the wall all the way through.
If you pay, perhaps three times as much for a paint brush, it will make the job so much easier and more pleasant for you. – Then, as long as you make sure you take a couple of minutes to rinse it through with water (for emulsion paint) or clean it in brush cleaner (for gloss), you can stick it away and re use it next year! – AND the year after – AND the year after.
You may think you save money by buying a cheap brush. But if you throw it away after one job, it’s probably actually costing you more money in the long run, and making the job much harder.

2) Get larger Rollers:

If you buy a £2.99 – “9”roller and tray” set, it will normally do the job ok. BUT, if you have two or three rooms to do, why not consider buying a 12” roller and tray instead?
Why? – a cheap 9” roller will normally have a very thin “pile” which means it doesn’t hold much paint. – a 12” roller usually has a thicker pile, so will hold a lot more paint per square inch, BUT it ALSO has around 4 times the surface area of a 9” roller. – The extra surface area plus the thicker pile means that means you can pick up maybe 5 or 6 times as much paint with the larger roller. – That means less returns to the paint tray, less drips and a far faster finished job. – Also, if you take a couple of minutes to clean the roller properly it could last you for years instead of for just one job.

3) Buy Good Quality Paint:

paint tinsIf you buy the large cheap 10 litre tubs of paint, you may think that you are saving money. - In fact you probably won’t be. Cheap paint tends to be thin paint. Which means, that unless you are just doing the same colour over the old paint, you’ll probably need to give it at least 2 coats to cover the old paint, and possibly three.
If , instead of buying the cheapest paint, you pay the extra and get “Obliterating” or “High Opacity” paint, there is a good chance you could do the job with one coat and little bit of touching up in places where the amount of paint on the roller got a bit “thin”.
If you can do the job in one coat, you save both time and paint! – So, you could actually end up saving money and getting a better and quicker job to boot!
 

How to paint and stay “clean”:

Most amateur decorators, when faced with a painting job, will end up with paint all over the brushes and themselves! – This need not happen.
The way to paint and to stay clean, is to follow a couple of simple rules:



Don’t overload the brush: 

Keep the paint tin close to where you are working and just dip the top ½” to ¾” of the brush into the paint. Then move quickly to the place you are painting, so that the paint does not have time to drip.
At this point there will be a “lump” of pint on the brush (especially if you use a thicker paint). – Just lightly dab the brush on the wall near to where you want to start to use the paint. – This is like an artist putting a bit of one paint colour onto a pallet to use later.
The “lump” will now be smaller, and you can start to paint without major drips or runs.

Brush lightly! 

Rather than “scrubbing” the wall, just lightly “tickle the surface” with the very end of the brush (– Again, a good quality brush makes this a lot easier). If you “Scrub” the brush on the wall, the first thing it does is force the paint down into the bristles, down the handle and onto your hand. – And from there, all over your clothes, the dog and the furniture!
As you work along and the paint on the brush starts to run out, just brush over the “blob” you left when you “dabbed” the wall. – This action will “pick up” that paint for you to carry on painting with.
If you use this method, you will paint faster and with far less mess.
 

How to use a Paint roller:

As with painting, when rolling, amateur painters tend to get as much paint on the surrounding furniture, carpets, TV etc as they do on the wall! – There are a couple of simple reasons for this – Paint Quality and SPEED!
If you use a good quality paint and a good quality roller, the paint will be thicker and less likely to “spray”, and the thicker pile of the roller will hold on to it better anyway.
If you roll slowly, there will be less “momentum” to send any spray that IS generated flying around the room. I recommend rolling at a speed of about 9” – 12” / second. – That is fast enough to get the job done, but slow enough not to create a cloud of spray!
Also, loading your roller is important:
Roll the roller gently over the top of the paint. – DON’T bury it in the paint. – You are only trying to load the top surface of the roller. Repeat the gentle “rolls” over the paint until you think the roller is about full, then lift it vertically off the paint. - This will leave a line of paint on the bottom of the roller as you lift it. THIS is the paint that will drip of you let it.
If you keep your roller tray close to the wall, you can slowly “flip” the roller while it is still above the tray, so that the “drip” part of the paint is on the top of the roller. – Then fairly swiftly move to the wall and roll the roller gently somewhere near where you want to start painting. – This does the same job as “dabbing” the paint brush. – It leaves some paint on the wall for you to use when the rest has been used, and stops you from getting runs when you start rolling.
Just roll gently and slowly, then when the roller is getting empty, roll over the paint you dabbed to pick it up, and carry on.
Following this method will let you paint much quicker and with less mess. BUT I would strongly suggest using thicker paints to roll.
 

How to “Cut In”:

female paintingCutting in (painting into the corners and around frames) is something a lot of people struggle with. Many people will mask off the adjacent wall or window / door frame before they start. – You may need to mask, but if you set yourself up right and follow a couple of easy rules, you may find that after a while you can cut in without having to mask anything off!
Getting a good job depends a lot on the brush and the paint you use and, believe it or not, the way you stand!
Good quality, thick paint, as I have said before will help you get a good finish. – A good quality brush will usually have a better shape and be able to get a more accurate finish.
The way you stand: - If you hold your arm out at full length and try to move it side to side in an exact straight line you will struggle. – The weight of your arm will make this very difficult. – However if you bend your arm to roughly 90 degrees or less, you will find you get more accurate control of where your hand moves. – SO, when you cut in, get yourself fairly close to the wall.
You also need to be at the right level, so you are not reaching up or across, so you may need step ladders.
Using the tips I gave you for earlier for general painting, together with your position close to the point where you want to apply the paint, and your arm bent and more controllable, you should find that straight away you get a better “cutting in line”.
With a bit of practice you will often be able to cut in perfectly adequately without having to do any “masking off”.
 

Glossing:

For Glossing, the tips I gave you about the quality of paint earlier apply just the same. – You can buy “One Coat” glosses which will save you a lot of time and probably give you a better finished job than the cheap “runny” glosses.
To start with, you need to put very little gloss paint onto your brush each time you “refill”. – If you put too much on, you are asking for “runs”.
The idea is to spread the gloss as thinly as possible to give an adequate covering, without leaving enough paint in any one place for it to have a tendency to start to run.
If you have an uneven surface, it is best to start with the difficult bits first – one area at a time, then finish the eas y part of that area and move onto an adjacent area.
Try to generally run your paint brush in the same direction all the time. – This should be in the direction you would expect the wood grain to run if whatever you are painting was made of wood (obviously it often will be made of wood, but the theory stays the same if it is not). To do specific awkward bits you can alter the direction of the brush movement, but, when you have done the initial covering of that area, go back over it and brush in the correct direction to finish the job to give a smooth and good looking finish.
Use good thick paint and don’t “scrub”, be as light with the brush as you can and you won’t get the paint running down the brush handle.
Keep a cloth in your other hand so that if you make any mistakes you can wipe the area without having to stop work to go and find a cloth. – With gloss paint, you may need a bit of brush cleaner on the cloth to get the marks off in some cases.
 

3) Decorating:

When it comes to decorating, there aren’t many of us who either enjoy it, or to be honest are very good at it!
Wallpaper stripping must be one of the most depressing jobs you have to do around the house!
Here are a few ideas to hopefully make it less stressful and a bit more successful:
 

Do we need to strip the old wallpaper off?

I would suggest that it is usually the best idea to do so. – The more layers of wallpaper there are, the harder it is to get a decent finish. Also, when you wallpaper over existing paper, the moisture from the paste will be absorbed by the old paper, which could make it expand slightly. – This can either form bubbles in its surface which may not disappear completely when it dries out and it can also cause the joints in your new paper to “open up” as the old paper dries and shrinks. – ruining the whole job.
 

Stripping the old wallpaper:

Some papers (vinyl’s for example) often come off the wall quite easily. With some, the front surface of the paper will come off and leave a thin backing paper, and some will simply not budge from the wall without major efforts being applied.
Whatever type of paper you are trying to strip, I would recommend that before you start, you do the following:
1) “Score” the paper: This means using the edge of a wallpaper stripping blade or trowel to make deep cut lines in the surface of the paper. Do as many of these as you can – all over the surface of the wall.
2) Get a wet (not dripping) sponge (after protecting any furniture etc) and wet the surface of the paper by wiping over it.
3) Leave it for 10 minutes then wet it again and leave it for another 10 minutes.
You can then start to strip the paper. – The water should have had time to soak through the “score lines” and start to loosen the old paste, and this should help considerably with the stripping process.
Alternatively, you could buy or hire a “Steam Wallpaper Stripper” to do the job. They are not expensive to buy or hire. – They basically does the same thing as the water, but the steam it generates does the job better and quicker than the cold water. – However, you should still score the paper prior to using the steam stripper.
For the “scoring” and “stripping” itself, I personally would suggest buying a large wallpaper stripping tool which takes 3” or 4” sharp blades, rather than just using the edge of a trowel. – The sharp blade will get behind the existing paper better and the larger size will mean you generally get faster stripping speed (the right tools for the job again!).
Always have a good supply of bin bags for the old paper and tidy up regularly, or bits of the old wallpaper will stick to our feet and you’ll be spreading it all over the house for days!
 

Stripping Textured Finishes:

This can be a horrible job! – Many houses in the 80’s and 90’s had the brainwave to cover their nasty bumpy walls with this lovely textured finish. – Great! – While it was in fashion and while it looked fresh and clean! – BUT, over the years, despite being painted, the surfaces get chipped and bits sometimes comes off, and it can start to look rather tatty. AND, - it’s sort of gone out of fashion now!
So, if you want to replace it and smarten up your home, you have to get rid of it somehow!
If you are lucky, it won’t have bonded too strongly to the plaster, but the chances are it will be pretty much well stuck!
Soaking the wall won’t help much, but if you score the surface (as I suggested in the previous section (decorating) and wet it with hot water, it might just give you a little bit of assistance.
Try a good quality commercial stripping blade with a large replaceable blade, which will give you the best chance of getting the stuff off rather than a small blunt stripping knife.
If that doesn’t work, you can buy specialist stripping products designed for just this job – They are not cheap, but they will generally work – We will contact a couple of these companies and suggest they advertise in the “Innovations and Inspirations” Section of this site, so have a look there and see if there is anyone listed. – If not, try an internet search for “textured coating stripper” or something similar.


 
 

4) Choosing Trades people:

girl with tradesmenChoosing trades people for a home DIY job can be a scary process. – But it needn’t be.
This site has been designed to make the whole of the Self Build, Property renovation and DIY far less daunting. – One of the things we are doing is to try to give YOU the DIY’er a bit more power when it comes to getting the right people for the job.
For a start, in many cases, you can now read or watch videos about the subject before you launch into it. – So, you should have a better idea of what you are talking about when you contact people.
Secondly, we have designed our Trade Directory to help to give you some help.
On each advert in the directory, you will see a row of small boxes with different titles. – These are a “Quick Reference Guide”. The idea of them is to speed up the search process by letting you see “who does what” without having to read the full a.
Two of the boxes are important for your when looking for trades people: “References” and “Free Advice”.
What we recommend is that you make the most of these two sections, by a) asking for references and following up on them b) Seeing how keen they are on giving “FREE ADVICE” over the phone.
If they can offer neither we recommend giving them a “wide birth” and moving on to another advertiser.
If none of the boxes are ticked, then ask them! – Say that you have found them in our Directory and that they have not filled in the “Quick Reference” boxes, and can they actually offer the references and free advice. – Their response will tell you a lot about them (some of them may not know about their ad until we have contacted them, which we will be doing, but you can give them the benefit of the doubt if the boxes are blank).
If everyone was to use this system properly, then ALL advertisers would soon find that they “have to play the game” or else miss out on a lot of work. – That way YOU get the power to make sure you get the right people (spread the word to friends and neighbours to use the system too – the more people using it, the quicker it will start to carry weight).
The other way to get a bit of control over the quality of the people you take on is to go by recommendation. – If some else has been happy with them, there is more of a chance that you will be. – Use our FORUM to ask questions like “Does anyone know a good Electrician in Birmingham?” to see if you can find good contacts already used by our readers. – Or just ask around your neighbours.
Just taking people o who you find in a directory, with no references and that you don’t know anything about is asking for trouble. – AND DO NOT PAY ANYONE UPFRONT. – Unless you are asking them to order something special that they would not otherwise need (they may insist on this in case you the job doesn’t proceed).


 
 

5) Choosing Carpets:

There are literally hundreds of different types and styles of carpet available, ranging from a couple of quid / sq m to hundreds of pounds / sq m. – But which is right for you and which is right for which location?
Obviously, your finances will have a big say in what you buy, but even at the less expensive end of the market, there are some good hardwearing carpets that will give you good service for years.
Bear in mind these guide lines when you go searching for carpets and you will stand a good chance of making the right choice:

1) Think about where the carpet will be going:

Light coloured carpets look fine in show houses, but you get a couple of mucky kids running over them for a month or two and that will soon change. – Think seriously before putting light coloured carpets in the hall or on the main “walk through” line of the house (normally hall or living room). You can help the muck to stay in one area by using a large “matting” area at the door where people can take off and leave their shoes
 

2) Choose carpet colours carefully:

If there is a chance of carpets getting dirty, light colours are not recommended, nor are blacks. – It may sound strange, but a colour which has “muddy” and / or “multiple” tones is actually not a bad choice. If the natural colour resembles the dirt that is may receive, it won’t show up as badly! – Some dark creams can look very nice and not show the dirt.
 

3) Feel the quality:

A little trick I have used for many years is to test the quality of the carpet with my nails:
Cheap carpets tend to be thin, with a thin weave and little depth. – If you can see the backing materials through the wave, the chances are that the carpet will wear quickly. – It means there is very little actual “carpet” making up the “carpet”!
If you form your fingers into a shape as if you were picking up a large apple, so your nails face the same way, and run your nails along a few carpets, you’ll soon feel the difference between them. Some cheap carpets can actually feel quite thick and of good quality when you do this test. – The ones where you nails rub along the backing will probably start to look “tired” after a short time.
The thicker and deeper the weave, generally, the more hard wearing the carpet will be. – However very long weaves (e.g. Shag Pile) can start to show wear fairly quickly, especially in areas of high levels of “footfall”, even if they are thickly woven.
“Looped” weaves tend to be more hardwearing than “open” weaves. – The loop means that there are no loose ends of the material to be frayed and worn down as easily. The loop tends to offer a more hardwearing surface (some of the cheapest “Cord” carpets are “looped”. – You will often see this type of carpet in offices and shops where hard wearing qualities are important.
 

4) Think about your furniture: 

and also think about the possibility of selling the house in the future: The more standard colours sell better if it comes to selling your house. – You may love that bright green for your bedroom, but would a potential buyer? – Also, think about the colour scheme of your room. It’s hard to imagine what the carpet will look like when you get it in with the rest of your furniture, so I recommend asking if you can borrow three or four samples from the shop, either for a few hours, or overnight, so you can test them “in situ”. You often find that the one you thought would go best when you were in the shop, actually doesn’t suit the room at all!
 

 5) Remember the “Other Costs” when you buy carpet:


Underlay can cost from a couple of pounds to £20+ / sq m. The more expensive, the more luxurious the feel underfoot (generally), but remember that this can actually double the cost of your carpet. – Also you have to buy gripper, adhesive, door bars and fitting. Fitting can be anything from £2 / sq m to £6 / sq m. (and for a large room that can add up to a lot of money)  – Make sure you include all those items in your budget before you start to choose your carpet so you know what price range you need to be looking in.
6) Choose the right width: Carpet generally comes in 2 widths: 12’ and 4metres, with 5m being available on some ranges. If you measure your room up roughly before you choose your carpet, you will know which width you need to go for. – Obviously the nearer to the exact width of the carpet you room is, the less waste there will be, and the less “jointing” will have to be done (which could cost you extra).
Where possible, get the sales people to come and measure up your rooms so they can get the most out of the carpet you order. – They know how to measure stairs and awkward rooms and may find ways to allow you to order less than you thought. – They should not charge you for this service (but check first).


 
 

6) Boilers / Insulation / heating system / Kitchen appliances:

You may or may not have heard of the Governments “Boiler Scrappage Scheme”. – If you have an old boiler, or a central heating system which needs updating, old kitchen appliances, or possibly if your house needs more insulation, you can now apply for grant help towards the cost from the Government.
 

7) Feed in Tariff:

On the same theme, if you fancy starting to use renewable energy in your home, a new scheme started up in April this year that allows you to sell excess energy you create from renewable sources back into the national energy grid. – this could offset the installation costs and make you money every year after that.