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Have you completed a grand design in the last two years, and would you like to gain recognition for it?

If so, you could enter your self build project into the Grand Designs Award 2013, for the chance to win this sought-after accolade, and then brag about it onstage to Kevin McCloud at the Grand Designs Show.

The Judges are Kevin McCloud (obviously), Lisa Allen – editor of Grand Designs Magazine, award-winning architect Phil Coffey, and Naomi Clever who is an interior designer and design consultant (you will have seen her on Channel 4 home design programes such as ‘Other people’s houses’, and ‘Honey, I ruined the House’).

The deadline for Grand Designs Award entries is the 7th March 2013 and it is an easy online registration process.

It is free, and is open to anyone who, within the last two years, has built or transformed a building; whether they are in the trade, or a related profession (such as an architect), or not.

The judging process is done anonymously to be completely fair and open – according to the Grand Designs website these are the criteria they will use to judge the award.

Entries will be judged anonymously using a points scoring system, and will consider the following criteria:

• Function
• Originality
• Innovation
• Aesthetics
• Sustainability
• Attention to context
• Cost

So if you have built or transformed something truly grand/amazing/eco/beautiful, then why not have a go? let us know if you go for it, we would love to see pictures of your entries.

If you win we would be proud to feature you and your build on DIY Doctor too, as we love to hear of people’s Home Improvement sucesses.

Click here to go to the Grand Design Awards application form.

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There has been a real upsurge of interest in traditional crafts recently from the relatively sedentary knitting and crocheting to more hefty stone carving and woodturning.

We applaud anyone who gets involved in these activities, because we believe that making and mending things yourself is much more intellectually challenging, and emotionally rewarding, than just buying something off the shelf.

There has been a trend also of giving these homemade craft items as gifts at festive times of the year, and it is lovely to receive an individually made piece of work from a loved one isn’t it? However there are some Guerrilla crafters who go beyond sharing their skills just with those they know, and who have put their craft work out in the public domain.

Forget Street Art – Street Craft is the new trend
We have noticed a growing trend in Yarnbombing, the practice of leaving knitted or crochet items in public places. The one pictured above is a great example of the type of thing, especially with the ‘smile’ sentiment attached. That seems to be the reason these wool graffiti artists do what they do, to raise a smile and bring yarn crafts into the public eye.

If you spot yarn bombing or any other street art and craft that you want to share please do so either via twitter @diydoctor or send pictures to office@diydoctor.org.uk you can even send us links to videos if you catch someone in the act – or indeed if this is something you do…

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Last summer you went out into the garden with your tool kit and DIY knowledge to build yourself a patio and BBQ area. The days were spent under the sun supplying friends and family with delicious food and enjoying the surroundings of the garden instead of the confines of the lounge. However, with the winter still with us, spending time outside seems a distant memory. Spring is the perfect time to restore your patio and BBQ area back to its former glory, and we’re here to show you just how easy it can be, so long as you have the right tools.

Preparation 

• Remove any garden furniture that you may have outside during the winter months
• Pull up any weeds that have grown and pick up any stones that might be lying around the patio – use a weed killer like Jeyes Fluid

Pressure Washing

Now that you have removed the weeds and stones from the patio you can begin pressure washing the surface. We would suggest that you wear safety goggles as the device can be extremely powerful and forceful. Ensure your pressure washer is fully powered by running it for a couple of seconds. Point the nozzle at a small area a couple of feet away from your body and test the pressure. Check the patch you’ve just cleaned and if all the debris has cleared, you know you have the right distance. This could take a couple of goes, but experiment with different distances to ensure you get the best clean. Carry on as usual, section by section and if the build up of water gets too much, have regular resting intervals. Allow for the patio to dry and you can start putting the finishing touches to it.

Tips

• It’s best to do this sort of work on a dry day – check the weather forecast to determine what the best day would be
• Have clear start and end points to ensure you don’t spread dirt across the patio where you’ve just pressure washed
• Direct water from the pressure washer to any nearby drains

Cleaning the patio

We would recommend that you use Jeyes Fluid for most outdoor activities. It can disinfect and deodorise drains, can be used to clean bins and clear pathways.  A Jeyes Fluid 5 litre bottle should be all you need to disinfect a large patio and BBQ area, four litres covers approximately 90 square meters. This is a must-have product to store in the shed if you have a dog, as he is sure to have done his business on the patio. Using this product will destroy pathogens, making it a safe place for children to play without running the risk of becoming ill.

Jeyes Fluid is also known to kill weeds, algae and moss making it a good product to use when preparing the patio before pressure washing. In fact you could even use this while you pressure wash, depending on the device you have.

If you will be using it after pressure washing, scrub the patio down using an outdoor brush and Jeyes Fluid to kill any lingering bacteria and stubborn debris.

Restoring your patio and BBQ area couldn’t be easier, especially if you combine the cleaning powers of a pressure washer with Jeyes Fluid. Doing so can save you a lot of time and energy, and the results will be a lot more rewarding – after all you’ll have more time to enjoy the space and get the BBQ going.

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Tell us your 12 favourite DIY tasks for a chance to win a full toolkit
(Tradesmen also get 12 months free advertising on DIY Doctor)

We have some mixed news for you this morning

The sad news is Auntie Mavis and Uncle Jim have passed away in a freak accident on their tandem.
The good news is you inherited their house
The bad news is it is overgrown, dilapidated and in a very poor condition throughout.
The good news is you could win a complete tool kit and a years free advertising (if you are a builder or tradesperson.)

We want to know what your reaction would be if this fictitious situation was real? Hopefully you would you be up for doing at least some of the renovating and repairing?

OK so here we go

The terms of the will state that you have to pick twelve tasks to tackle yourself.

Please tell Mavis and Jim’s ‘solicitors’ which ones you would do. Click here to use our two-question survey to rank the tasks in order of “Work I would be most likely to tackle” down to “Work I would be least likely to tackle”. (It should only take 6 minutes.)

Prize wining and other information

At close of play we will work out the two most popular DIY tasks from all the entries.

Each entrant with these two tasks on their list will go into a safety helmet. One lucky winner will be pulled out and receive a full tool kit for each of the trades. If the winner is a tradesman, they will also get 6 months free advertising on DIY Doctor.

We use the information you give us to make sure our website content is relevant (you know it is free so it might as well be interesting and excellent too!).

If you win we would like to promote the story on our website and social media sites and use a promotional picture of you – you can of course, opt out of this.

Good Luck!

The DIY Doctor Team

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Would you be prepared to send us your DIY disasters?

So many people own smartphones these days that videos are becoming the easiest way of telling a story.

DIY Doctor is reacting to this trend by supplying more and more video versions of our How To guides and Product Review videos, to help you with your Home Improvement tasks and when making choices on which equipment to use for your building projects.

We used to get emails from you telling us what was going wrong, and we still get posts on our forum that highlight common problems, but we are looking for something a bit more graphic.

Now we would like your videos showing the challenges you meet when carrying out building, renovating or repairing jobs at home.

Send us your videos and we will advise you

If you have a project that is going horribly wrong, or you have started a project and found a job that you simply can’t tackle, please make a short video and send us a link. We will then use it to answer your questions.

You can tell us whether we can use it on the site, to share your problem with other users, which could help them if they find themselves in similar scrapes. If you say you want it kept private then we will, of course, respect your wishes.

How do I send videos?

Take your video on your phone or video camera and then upload it to your choice of video service.

Three good video sites that offer a free uploading and sharing system are

Drop Shots

You Tube

Vimeo

There are probably others available – use whichever you prefer.

If you like you can set your video as ‘private’ on any of these three sites, this means they are not available online, but they can be shared by invitation. Otherwise you might want them to be freely available – they might go ‘viral’ and make you famous!

We will view it and comment and, if you allow us to, we will publish it on the DIY Doctor website.

You have been framed?

Now those of you who have a more evil sense of humour may want to send in videos of your friend/spouse/workmate doing something stupid and funny, while carrying out building work and Home Improvement tasks. We would be lying if we said we don’t want these.

Who doesn’t want a laugh?

So if you spot some idiot tiptoeing on a bucket to reach the last bit of painting on a soffit and you just know they are going to fall off covering themselves in paint, or they are about to drive a digger into a foundation trench, or they are carrying too many bricks and are about to trip over the dog or step in a bucket of plaster, then by all means set the camera rolling.

Send in the results – name and shame the victim!

Email us your Video

Send your video link, your name and contact details to office@diydoctor.org.uk. Don’t forget to tell us whether you want to remain anonymous or not.

In the mean time you might want to watch DIY Doctor’s Mike Edwards on stage at the ideal home show, talking about DIY Disasters.

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