Welcome to DIY Doctor's blog

We have many project pages on our site, but sometimes you just need assurance or detail on your particular home improvement plans.
This is where our forum is an invaluable tool. Our posts are modified to ensure safe practices are adhered to, and to avoid the 3am ranters who want to put the world to rights after a session out on the town!

We are lucky to have contacts with many tradesmen around the country who are members, and who are willing to share their knowledge. Our own team are also very knowledgeable and can point you to the right resources on the site, or if appropriate they will answer your questions.

Anyone can view the contents of the forum, simply go to the DIY Doctor forum page.

• If you want to just read the questions already posted and answered, click though to the DIY Doctor Forum Index.
• If you want to ask a question on the Diydoctor forum click through to register.
• If you are already registered you can log in and ask for advice from other DIY Doctor users many of whom are experienced DIY’ers, or tradesmen.

We need you to register before you use our forum to make sure that the email address belongs to a human, and not a robot! This helps help us to ensure that fraudulent and malicious postings do not appear and is a measure to prevent spam.

Our forum is laid out in categories, and postings are in date order, this helps you to find what you are looking for and will help others with similar questions.

See below for an example – in this case a question about an Internal Block Wall.

What you may not realise is that while we are moderating and responding to your queries we are also noticing trends in certain topics and if it is clear that there is a demand for more information we will write a more in depth article for our projects section. Click here to browse the DIY Doctor Project pages.

All these resources are free to our members and we appreciate your support so please spread the word by clicking on the social media buttons below.

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In the current economic situation, it’s a good idea to be frugal whenever and wherever you can be. DIY is a natural frugal stepping point for the home improvement enthusiast, but there are several pitfalls for a newbie or novice to fall into. Measurement is one of the main ones, as if the initial measurement is wrong then it doesn’t matter how good a job you do at the end of the day, the job is doomed from the beginning.

Frugal options for curtains is to either make them yourself or to buy ready made curtains online, and with both these options, the measurement is vital towards the success of the project. So, here is a useful guide on how to measure for curtains:

Measure The Width

A common mistake when measuring the width for curtains is to measure the window instead of the curtain track or pole. Unlike blinds, curtains need to be measured so that the hang over the width of the window, meaning an exact measurement of the window width will result in too short curtains that won’t cover the entire window.

If you already have a curtain pole in place, then measure the length of the pole between the finials, which are the decorative ends of the pole.

If you have curtain rails, simply measure the length of the rail. If your rail has an overlap, then add the length of the overlap to the length of the rail.

When fitting a new track or pole, be sure to extend the width of the window by 15 to 20 cm on either side of the window, thereby preventing the dilemma of having curtains that won’t cover the window.

Measure The Drop

The drop of your curtains is the length which you’d like them to be. This is fully dependent on your preference, and it is currently fashionable to have long and cascading curtains meaning that the drop rolls over onto the floor. Trends aside though, you can follow these three typical measurement guide:

A: Full length – Approximately 1.5 to 3cm above floor level.

B: Above radiator-  The curtains end 1 to 3cm above the radiator.

C: Below window sill- Usually 15cm are added to the measurement of rail to window sill.

If you’re measuring from a curtain pole, remember to measure from the top track or bottom of the curtain rings to the desired drop length of your curtains.

For eyelet curtains also known as Tap Top, you’ll need to take the measurement from the very top of the curtain pole.

The measurement of the width of the curtain needs to be very precise and is the measurement which can make a break the success of the project, whereas the measurement of the drop has more flexibility and gives you the chance to try out different length ideas. If you’re not sure how long you want your curtains to be, try visualising the end result, using a spare bed sheet to guide you. Simply highlight the measurement options on the bed sheet using a non-washable fabric marker, and ask someone to hold up the sheet in front of the window, then stand back and observe. You can also fold up the sheet to give a better look at how the curtains will look in that particular length.

This article was written by Sarah Oxley on behalf of Custom Curtains, providers of quality ready made curtains you can buy online. Sarah is a home improvement and DIY enthusiast, who believes that DIY needn’t be complicated and wishes to encourage everyone to give DIY a go.

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i have converted my garage to a office and would like to put a woodburner in it,it has a flat roof,would you recommend going through the flat roof with the flue or through the wall.

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Need a break from the boredom of work and the hum drum activities of everyday life? Why not get down and dirty with DIY Doctor for 10  minutes?

Demolition work is dangerous

DIY Doctor has found this construction quiz on the Discovery channel website. Some of it is “Americanised” but in essence it’s fun and you may learn something you didn’t already know. The questions revolve around the dirty jobs of construction and demolition and you can find out how many chimneys it is possible to sweep in one day as well as what vanilla has to do with demolition.

Click on the link to be taken to the Dirty Quiz and enjoy

Take the Dirty Demolition Quiz

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Thank you to everyone that entered the Frome DIY-er of the Year Competition.

We had hundreds of entries which is very encouraging – proving that despite some comments to the contrary, DIY is alive and well!

Our first DIY competition is now closed, with the three lucky finalists invited to the Grand Final live event on Saturday, 4th June.

This takes place outside Sergeants Ironmongers on Catherine Hill in Frome kicking off at 12 noon.

The three finalists will have to put their DIY skills to the test by completing painting and carpentry tasks, which will then be judged by DIY Doctor himself, Mike Edwards and Steve Cox, proprietor of Sergeants Ironmongers, who sponsored the competition.

Along with a trophy and the title of Frome DIYer of the Year, our finalists will be competing for a first prize of £200 of diy tools, 2nd prize is £150 of diy tools and third place £50 of diy tools.

We hope that as many as possible of our other entrants will come along on Saturday to meet the team and give encouragement to our final three. If you are free, do come along and join in the fun!

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