Welcome to DIY Doctor's blog

Many people write into our forum asking what causes damp in their homes

Causes of Damp

If you have a cavity wall there is a chance that damp on an internal wall is caused by a breach of the cavity.

This can happen for several reasons:

• The gap between the walls has filled with rubbish and this is allowing moisture to travel from the outside to the inside wall
• The Wall tie is covered in dirt or rust, so instead of any moisture dripping off the center of the tie, it runs along the tie and onto the internal wall
• The damp proof course may have been breached – that is earth, tarmac or other material has been built up over the original damp proof course, or damp proof membrane, allowing moisture to travel along it
• Pipework or other fixings that run through the wall have not been effectively sealed, so there is a direct route for moisture to travel into the building
• Poor cavity wall insulation can also cause damp on internal walls

Diagnosing Damp

Symptoms you may notice are discoloured paintwork, black mould growth, flaking plaster, plaster ‘blowing’ or lifting away form the wall, or a white powdery substance caused by ‘salts’ leaching out of the plaster.

If you suspect you have a problem, you should use a damp meter to be sure that the area is actually damp, before taking further action.

Image courtesy of Property Repair Systems

Treating Damp

Treatment of the problem will depend on the cause, and so it is vital that you have found the cause of the damp problem before you start treatment, in order that treatment can be effective.

When we have lots of questions on a particular home improvement problem we write a project about it, for our project section to explain the causes and the solutions.

To find out more about how to diagnose and solve problems with damp in cavity walls please head over to our projects section.

If the problem you are experiencing is not covered in the projects section then do please place your query in our forum.

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According to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), more than 5,000 people die and 2.7 million end up in hospital each year due to accidents in the home. Around 220,000 DIY enthusiasts seek medical attention each year with approximately 128,000 being injured by tools, machinery, ladders and stepladders – so how can we keep ourselves safe?

Well, RoSPA advises homeowners to plan each job carefully and wear the correct safety gear – such as gloves, masks and goggles – but it’s also wise to keep a well-stocked first aid kit nearby just in case, click here to see a range from specialist suppliers Seton. While there’s no set list of what should be included, the Health and Safety Executive recommends a basic list of supplies including:

20 individually wrapped sterile plasters

Whether you’re cutting down a table or fitting a carpet it can be easy to get a scratch or graze. In fact, the Home Accident Surveillance System (2002) revealed that knives and scalpels cause around 21,300 accidents in the UK each year, so it’s a good idea to have some sterile plasters to hand.  An assortment of sizes would be ideal and hypoallergenic variants should be used if you suffer from skin allergies.

Two sterile eye pads

If you’re planning on carrying out some handy work – be it sawing chairs or sanding doors – sterile eye pads could come in useful. They’re ideal for minor eye injuries and will help prevent any dust, dirt or grit from causing further irritation. To use, place the pad lightly over the eye ensuring there’s not too much pressure on the socket and secure by tying some bandage around the head.

Four individually wrapped triangular bandages

Every year people are injured by concrete slabs, building blocks and bricks, metal bars and chipboard. Heavy objects can cause broken bones and blood loss, which is why triangular bandages are a must-have. They can be used to secure fractured collar bones and hands and can be easily transformed into a broad-fold bandage for sprains and strains or a sling for upper and lower arm injuries.

A pair of disposable gloves

You never know when you’ll have to help someone else or deal with considerable blood loss, so keep some disposable gloves in your first aid box. They protect the casualty if the first aider has grimy hands and allow people to deal with bodily fluids more easily. Gloves are usually available in small, medium, large and extra-large, so make sure you get the right size.

DIY is a great pastime for many and can save you a fortune on builders and handy men, but keep health and safety at the forefront of your mind.

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Thank you to everyone who completed our recent survey about DIY tasks. We were really pleased with the response.

If you took part, your survey answers will be used to make sure we have the right information on our site for anyone thinking of building and Taking on DIY.

We also want to congratulate our winner of the prize draw. Well done to Charles May, from Basingstoke, who will receive a complete toolkit in the post shortly.

DIY Survey Findings
The scenario that we set up for you was that you had inherited a house that needed a complete overhaul, and we asked you to tell us which household  repairs and maintenance you would feel happy to tackle.

So what did we find out from your replies?

We can tell by your answers that you are happy with the idea of decorating, because 96% of you said you would happily paint, and 82% would tackle wallpapering.

Garden tasks wouldn’t phase you either with 87% being happy to do the gardening, 81% would erect fencing and 74.5% would be happy to fit decking.

Making your house better insulated is obviously something you are happy to get involved with, as 81% said they would happily fit loft insulation.

What was interesting was that only 32% would be happy to try plastering, perhaps this is one of the reasons that our trade show demonstrations, and You Tube Videos on How to Skim Plaster, are so popular.

Another DIY task that seemed to be very popular was ceramic tiling, 86.5% would put up wall tiles, but strangely only 68% would have a go at floor tiling.

We cover a huge range of repair, maintenance, DIY and building tasks in our Projects section, click here to view the full list of projects.

Other responses
In order to make sure that we covered all the DIY tasks that you might be prepared to do, we also asked you to name any other household repairs or jobs that might crop up. There were some very interesting answers, CAT5 cabling came up a couple of times in your lists, and some mentioned solar installation.

The most drastic answer was:

“Knock the house down and start again subject to planning”

But our favourite response was:

“Making Tea for professional tradesmen or women!”

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Many people complain that their light bulbs blow regularly and we run through the main reasons that this happens

It is not likely that the problem you have is a major one. Your circuit breakers (MCB) in the house are designed to trip if there is any fault in the wiring. A bulb blowing may trip the switch, but providing a brand new bulb replaced in the fitting does not blow straight away than you can look for one of these minor problems.

Firstly isolate the power supply to the bulb – turn it off at the main fuse board to be sure.

• Don’t buy cheap light bulbs – they are a false economy
• Overloading a system – when the light fitting says a maximum wattage for the bulbs that means the life of the bulb may be reduced if you overload it
• Using too many bulbs of the ‘right’ wattage in a light fitting – you should pay attention to the maximum number of watts allowed for the whole fitting. This is a common problem with halogen bulbs
• There may be a loose connection in the lamp holder
• If the fitting is a spring loaded one make sure it is fitting snugly against the bulb, and not loose
• The ‘live’ wire in the fitting may be loose

If you replace the bulb and the fuse trips immediately, you should call in an electrician to source the problem.

For the sake of safety can we repeat that you must make sure you have turned the power off to the light fitting before you try to do any maintenance.

Please click through to the projects section on our main site where we have a more detailed project on this problem with bulbs, and how to deal with it.

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National Garden week starts next weekend just as we are launching our new DIY Doctor gardening section

As you know we really enjoy sharing our knowledge with you on all things DIY, and we have asked some good friends in the gardening world to give us the benefit of their knowledge, to bring you some great tips on everything to do with the garden and gardening; including landscaping, planting, lawn maintenance and many other garden related projects.

Our new gardening section is split into easy to navigate sections, so you can find what you are looking for quickly and easily.

We will be building up the section by adding new projects throughout the coming year. If you can’t find a project that you think we should include, then please write to us at office@diydoctor.org.uk.

15-21 April 2013 is National Gardening week

The theme this year is wildlife and diversity in the garden, which helps to encourage wildlife and provide a natural balance within the garden.

The BBC’s series of programmes called “Bees, butterflies and blooms” deals with this idea and you might like to click through to see their programmes here.

We have a project in our new wildlife section called wildlife gardens, and you can visit it here.

If you are a garden writer, or blogger and you would like to contribute to our gardening section please contact us.

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