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May 15

Garage doors are available in all different designs, from rollers to sectional and up and over variants. Although they may appear different on the exterior, these overhead doors all work in the same way. Moving across metal tracks on the wall, the doors operate using spring tension to provide the power needed to open and close. Therefore, if you encounter any issues with your garage door not functioning easily or properly, the solution can be simple.

Please be aware that you should not attempt to repair roll-up garage doors that have just one torsion spring. Doing so may result in injury as the tension in the spring can be very strong. If you have a door with this type of spring that needs repairing, professionals from providers such as A.B.I. garage doors Leeds should be contacted.

What you may need:

  • Screwdriver
  • Rubber mallet
  • Marking level
  • Wood filler
  • Hollow fiber plugs
  • Carpenter glue
  • Household cleaning products

When inspecting the metal tracks inside the garage, you should work with the garage door firmly closed. If these tracks have grease or dirt on them then this can easily be cleaned using household products. In order to ensure your garage doors operate smoothly you should regularly clean the roller and tracks, and wipe them dry afterwards.

If there is any damage or dents to the tracks then these can be carefully worked out using a flat piece of wood and a rubber mallet. However, if the damage is exceptional then you should contact repair professionals. You should also check the mounting brackets that fix the tracks to the interior of the garage. These can come loose over time, but can be easily fixed by tightening screws and bolts back firmly into the bracket with a screwdriver.

If the issue still continues then your problem may be where the tracks are aligned. On roll-up garage doors vertical sections of the metal track should be exactly upright and horizontal tracks should slant slightly downwards towards the back of the garage. Both tracks should be positioned at the same height on the walls. Check the track levels and, if not properly aligned, loosen the screws that hold the mounting brackets in place. Make sure not to remove them completely. You should then carefully tap the tracks back into position and recheck the tracks to make sure they are correct. You can then tighten the screws firmly into the mounting bracket.

Loose hardware can also affect the performance of your garage doors. Make sure all screws on the plates of swing-up doors are tight. If you have a roll-up door, then you should check the hinges that hold the different sections together. Any loose screws or bolts should be tightened and damaged hinges replaced.

To fix an enlarged screw hole, replace the screw with a new, longer one that is of the same diameter. You will need to use a hollow fiber plug which has been dipped in carpenter’s glue when fixing the new screw. If the surrounding wood is cracked then you should remove the hinge completely and fill the crack with wood filler, moving the hinge onto solid wood if possible. Once the filler has dried, you can replace the hinge. Servicing the hinges will usually fix the door if it is sagging on one side.

May 12

What do we mean when we say contract your build? Well maybe we should say contract your builder. It is an astonishing fact that less than 5% of all building jobs carried out in the private sector, are protected by any sort of contract.

Would you let your property without a Tenancy Agreement? Or employ someone without a Contract of Employment (well no, actually you can’t do this legally anyway – but you know what we mean).

It is easy for you and your builder to be setting out on the adventure that is your new build at different tangents. It is not necessarily a case of your builder being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it is simply easy to misinterpret each others expectations of the outcome.

We want to make the process of employing a good builder a much easier one, and so we set up an area of DIY Doctor that is designed to do that – we called it ‘Home Improver Protection Solution’ – or HIPS for short, either click on the link or you will find that HIPS button on our navigation bar.

The whole solution is split into 5 sections:

  • Price Doctor – price checking software (free version available)
  • Desired outcome contract – free and written in clear English
  • Notes for using the contract
  • Payment scheme
  • Find a tradesman

If you use this simple process it will help you get the job you want from your builder – and root out the rogue ones too.

Our Founder Mike Edwards asked his Daughter and Son-in-Law and their builder to use the contract and comment on their experience of using it – you can see the video here:

May 08

garden path A path to sell your house

What is the fist thing potential buyers see when they visit your house? What about the garden path?

We all know that having a freshly painted front door, with pots of healthy plants either side, makes a great first impression on visitors. If you are selling your house this is one of the first ‘selling tips’ you will see on many blogs and websites, but have you considered what your path is saying about your property?

Does your garden say ‘low maintenance and stylish’ or ‘poorly maintained (because I hate gardening)’? You can transform a shabby garden path in a couple of weekends. Spend some time in the evenings of the first week flicking through gardening ideas, planning what you want and ordering the materials you need. You can use our ‘Creating a Garden Path’ project to help you choose layout, materials, and styles. Then spend the weekend clearing away old paving and laying the foundations.

Decisions to make

  • Straight or curved- curved lines are more ‘friendly’ straight lines more formal
  • Paved, gravel, concrete or paviers – or a mixture for texture
  • Planting around or between slabs
  • Is it too soon for a revival of crazy paving?

The next weekend can be used laying the weed control fabric, gravel or paving, planting some attractive flowers or plants, and doing a bit of sweeping and weeding, to make sure your front garden is saying what you want to potential house buyers. Make the front of your house a great advertisement for what is inside.

We have video tutorials on using a disc cutter to help you with cutting paving slabs, advice on weed control, and what sand and cement mix to use to lay your slabs securely and permanently. However getting the foundations right is very important so once you have decided which, …er… path your garden path is going to take over your front garden, you should lay a good base of scalping which will allow gravel paths to drain, and will keep paved paths from moving and cracking.

We have more tips on selling your house in our Projects Section including a ‘First Time Buyers Guide’ and how to ‘Be an Estate Agent’.

Apr 24

The government are releasing up to 100 building plots in the 2012 Olympic village in Stratford, and some East Londoners are bidding to self-build on the site.

Stratford Olympic building site Would you want to build a house on the Olympic site?The London Legacy Development Corporation’s (LLDC) has called for expressions of interest for anyone wishing to build on the site, which was the former handball arena.

There is currently a group of twenty households who have expressed their interest in building their own homes on the site. The LLDC plans to allow some 8,000 homes on the former Olympic Site overall. While this is likely to

This is another indication of the Government’s policy to try to open up the idea of self-build to a wide range of budgets, and not just to affluent people. Their idea is to tackle the housing shortage by getting people to build the houses they want, and then presumably to settle in them long term, given that they are offering these tax breaks providing you stay for 7 years.

The news follows on from last month’s announcement by the Governments Housing Minister Mark Prisk, who plans to release £14million in grants over the next two year to bump start the self-build market along these lines. See the statement released by the Housing Department last month.

If you are planning a self-build project we have a section in our project pages with lots of information to do with building your own home, go to the DIY Doctor self build index page and browse through all the useful information including specialist mortgages, finding building plots, development processes, cheap materials, vat implications, planning costs, and how to design your own home.

You may also want to check out our blog about the new changes to VAT on Self Build Projects, by clicking on this link.

Apr 22

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

Damp on internal walls Damp Walls?

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.

meterinwood Damp Walls?

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.